Predio No 1: Sistema Agroforestal

practices and diversifying into non-pastoral livelihoods that embrace resilience or incremental adaptation while transformational adaptation is lacking. Indigenous knowledge and practices are crucial inputs, and adaptive capacity is constrained by set of multiple barriers.

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III Role of rural indigenous institutions in adaptation

Indigenous institutions played important yet weakening roles in enabling smallholders adaptation mainly through regulating access to common-pool resources required for adaptation, facilitating post- shock livelihood recovery and supporting traditional climate forecast and early warning systems.

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In section 6.2, we briefly discuss the three research components undertaken with the Borana communities and in 6.3 their significance to improving local adaptation to climate change. A general conclusion and potential future research areas are given in section 6.4.

6.2 The roles played by perception of climate change and indigenous institutions in adaptation

1. Perception of climate change and its impact by smallholders in pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana, south Ethiopia.

Adaptation to climate change in agriculture requires perception of climate change and its risk to agriculture and livelihoods, both as a problem and context. Perception prompts the need for

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conscious adaptation, subsequent decisions to adapt and employ internal and external assistance mechanisms for adaptation (Maddison, 2007). We considered the perception of climate change as prerequisite to the discussion of adaptation options and barriers, and institutional capacity for adaptation. Moreover, perception of climate change consistent with meteorological evidence is critical for appropriate problem analysis, an important input for successful adaptation. Otherwise, misperception of the actual climate change represents an inappropriate diagnosis of the problem and has significant implications for successful adaptation including incurring transitional losses.

Smallholder perception of climate change during a 20 year study period (1992-2012) and its associated impact on local agriculture were investigated. Data were obtained from farm household surveys conducted in 5 districts, across 20 pastoral/agropastoral associations and 480 farm households of Borana in southern Ethiopia. Despite limited meteorological evidence of significant climate change during 1992 and 2012, the results suggested that irrespective of household and farm attributes, most participants had an overwhelming perception that climate was changing and exerting a negative impact on agriculture. Climate change was mainly felt in terms of increased temperature and reduced rainfall (frequent seasonal droughts) whereby the former is consistent with meteorological evidence and the latter was found difficult to clearly substantiate. It is likely that the perception of declining rainfall might be triggered by recent drought events as a result of extreme climatic conditions.

Perception levels were significantly affected by household and farm attributes such as livestock holding, level of attained education, access to support services such as climate information and extension services. In contrast, household size, farm and non-farm income levels, farming experience and type of production system did not significantly affect perception levels. Smallholders attributed climate change to a range of biophysical, deistic and anthropogenic causes. Results highlighted the need for enhancing awareness of the risks associated with climate change. Smallholders must have realistic expectations and be better prepared not only so they can cope with the negative impacts but also take advantages of any opportunities associated with a changing climate.

2. Options for and barriers to climate change adaptation in pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana, southern Ethiopia.

A mixed-method research approach was used to interrogate the adaptation options employed to manage risks of climate change among the Borana pastoralists/agropastoralists communities. We used a combination of frameworks (the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) and

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Pelling’s typology of adaptation) to analyse data obtained from farm household surveys (n=480), community focus group discussions and expert consultations. Findings showed that the communities mostly relied on indigenous methods of adaptation whereby traditional knowledge and practices, and the role played by indigenous institutions were key to adaptation. Local adaptation options included livestock supplementary feeding, off-farm employment (non-pastoral occupations), herd mobility, livestock sales, water developments, social safety-nets, receiving food aid and livelihood diversification (growing crops and/or herd diversification). Smallholders were clearly making a shift into more diversified livelihood systems such as moving from cattle dominated livestock enterprises to mixed and diversified herd structures. Moreover, they practiced cultivation by integrating crop and livestock enterprises suggesting a shift to agropastoralism.

Based on Pelling’s topical framework, the smallholders largely pursued resilience (stability) and transitional (incremental change) adaptation pathways to avoid major system disruptions and to bring marginal changes rather than adopt any long-term sustainable transformational approaches. Adaptation options tended to be reactive in nature, not proactive or anticipatory risk-based approaches. In addition, some adaptive measures tended to lead to maladaptation harming the future capacity of communities to adapt to future changes. While there were continued efforts to adapt, there is little evidence that adaptation significantly reduced vulnerability and improved livelihoods. Wide spread food insecurity and deepening poverty with eroded resources for future adaptation are key examples. The results suggested that smallholders had yet to realise any beneficial opportunities climate change may offer in terms of investment and diversification of livelihoods.

Despite efforts to adapt to climate change, this study showed that the adaptive capacity of pastoral/agropastoral systems of Borana is constrained by a range of barriers and that these systems are highly vulnerable to climatic stresses. Major barriers include a shortage of financial resources, limited technical assistance (including climate and extension services), cultural bias and limited policy support to encourage local level adaptation. External support for local adaptation pathways appeared limited and the government’s push for ‘‘modernizing agriculture’’ undermined the smallholder traditional approach to adaptation and traditional lifestyle, pastoralism. Therefore, adaptation pathways that build on local resources and address the key barriers to enhancing adaptive capacity are crucial to ensure functioning of these fragile agricultural systems.

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3. Role of indigenous rural institutions in adaptation to climate change in Borana pastoral/agropastoral systems, south Ethiopia

Adaptation to climate change involves policies, practices and institutions. Institutions, particularly indigenous ones, play a crucial role in facilitating adaptation at the local level among rural traditional communities. Thus, better insight of how institutions engage in local level adaptation and interact with other counterparts will allow development program managers to integrate external actors and interventions with local institutions. The last step of my study was to assess the enabling role of indigenous institutions in the study area in respect to climate change adaptation. Data were collected from interviews of a total of 10 individuals representing 5 districts and 10 different pastoral and agropastoral associations or villages. Data were processed using NVivo software and then analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The important role of indigenous institutions in the Borana community is consistent with previous studies that showed indigenous institutions underpin everyday life of the Borana where a strong social tradition of resource sharing is common (Homann et al., 2008b; Tache, 2008). The study identified three key distinct roles indigenous institutions play in facilitating adaptation to climate change - 1) regulating access to common-pool natural resources required for adaptation, 2) facilitating support for post-shock livelihood recovery which increased livelihood security for vulnerable social groups, and 3) supporting the traditional climate early warning systems which are based on tacit knowledge of the environment. Institutions achieve this through shaping collective action and responses to climate shocks and stressors.

The indigenous institutions enabled adaptation through providing resources, rules, norms and knowledge to facilitate local level decision-making. However, the results also found that the roles of indigenous institutions in collective resource management were weakening, due to past misguided top-down interventionist approaches of state and non-state development stakeholders on different aspects including on land tenure systems. Interference by state laws had disrupted local rules and norms used to manage natural resources and resulted in expanding private cultivation of communal rangelands and uncontrolled settlement. The expansion has threatened the welfare of pastoral systems and environmental sustainability by resulting in exploitation and degradation of communal resources. Nonetheless, indigenous institutions remain resilient and critical in Borana where strong social capital and tradition of resource sharing is common (Tache, 2008). In this regard, the Borana community are well known to have one of the most comprehensive indigenous institutional systems, called Gada.

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6.3 Significance of my research for climate change adaptation by the Borana pastoralists