Abstract
Vulnerable rural communities face climate change-related shifts in rainfall patterns, particularly droughts and floods. The study investigated how Ntalale ward households in Gwanda district of Zimbabwe interpret climate change and adapt to its stressors in the context of the Zimbabwean political economy. Focus group discussions and interviews collected qualitative data. The community has experienced the following climate change-related risks: droughts, floods, heatwave and intra-seasonal rainfall variability. Droughts were reported to be occurring more frequent in the past 25 years as compared to the period before 1991. Ntalale area experienced floods in the 2002–2003 rainy season only. Respondents generally perceived that the rainy season had changed in the past 5 years, with the season now beginning in December and ending in March. The households have resorted to shifting cultivation practices, replanting, use of wetlands in preference to upland fields, changing of seed varieties or crops, selling of livestock and informal trading as coping strategies. Although non-governmental organisations have assisted the community to set up irrigation schemes, a few selected community members have benefited from the initiative. The Ntalale community has experienced four climate change-related risks and institutions have assisted the community. It is recommended that cooperation between households and institutions is key in developing stakeholder-driven adaptation strategies.
Highlights
The term ‘stakeholder’ may refer to an individual, group, party, community and organisation that has potential to influence or be influenced by adaptation strategies or programmes (Vervoort et al 2014)
The response to differential impacts of climate change on households is further weakened by some unintended outcomes of scientific innovations supported by politicians, government sectors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (Chambers 1994; Mbereko et al 2015a)
Focus group discussions and in-depth interview participants said they experienced four types of climate change-related stressors: intra-seasonal rainfall variations, declining or low rainfall, heatwaves and flooding (Table 1)
Summary
The term ‘stakeholder’ may refer to an individual, group, party, community and organisation that has potential to influence or be influenced by adaptation strategies or programmes (Vervoort et al 2014). In sub-Saharan Africa, stakeholder groups with diverging interests find themselves responding to the impacts of climate change on socio-ecological systems (Dunford et al 2015; Vervoort et al 2014). Climate change has differential impacts amongst stakeholders across different geographical scales and presents an adaptation equity problem (Tol et al 2004). There is need for demand-driven adaptation strategies to climate change that will co-evolve with social actors in the political economy context (Vervoort et al 2014). This article seeks to understand household interpretation of and adaptation strategies towards climate change stressors in the context of the local political economy
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