Climate change and pastoralism: impacts, consequences and adaptation

Abstract

The authors discuss the main climate change impacts on pastoralist societies, including those on rangelands, livestock and other natural resources, and their extended repercussions on food security, incomes and vulnerability. The impacts of climate change on the rangelands of the globe and on the vulnerability of the people who inhabit them will be severe and diverse, and will require multiple, simultaneous responses. In higher latitudes, the removal of temperature constraints might increase pasture production and livestock productivity, but in tropical arid lands, the impacts are highly location specific, but mostly negative. The authors outline several adaptation options, ranging from implementing new technical practices and diversifying income sources to finding institutional support and introducing new market mechanisms, all of which are pivotal for enhancing the capacity of pastoralists to adapt to climate variability and change. Due to the dynamism of all the changes affecting pastoral societies, strategies that lock pastoral societies into specified development pathways could be maladaptive. Flexible and evolving combinations of practices and policies are the key to successful pastoral adaptation.

Drivers of Food Choice among Pastoral/Agro-Pastoral Community in Somali Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia

“…Increased climate variability could decrease herd sizes because of increased mortality and poorer reproductive performance of the animals. is decrease in animal numbers would affect food security, and compromise the consumption of nutritious/ healthy diet [23]. In the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya, for example, the loss of animals and subsequent losses in milk and meat production, because of increased drought frequency, could amount to more than US $630 million by 2030 [24].…”

“…To overcome the major factors that influence the food choice decisions, these communities should be encouraged to respond to drought by diversifying livelihood options such as cultivation, wage or salaried labor, trade, and business [28][29][30][31]. Supplementing pastoral incomes with farm or off-farm income [32], diversifying herd composition [33], supplementation of fodder, development of water sources (ground and rain water harvesting), saving/credit schemes, early warning systems, new market opportunities, education and cash transfers [23] are also important coping strategies to climate change and drought. Furthermore, insurance services, including transportation insurance and index-based livestock insurance (which has been piloted in Mongolia [34] and Kenya [35]), can reduce the risk of loans.…”

Strategies for global rangeland stewardship: Assessment through the lens of the equilibrium–non‐equilibrium debate

“…Provisioning services are often maximized at the local scale to sustain human livelihoods, while decreasing the supporting, regulating and cultural services that benefit humans globally (Davies, Ogali, Laban, & Metternicht, 2015; Favretto et al, 2016; Petz et al, 2014). Supplementation of range livestock may continue to increase world‐wide in response to improved transportation infrastructure, fragmentation of pastoral lands, greater climate‐induced variability of rangeland forage production and heightened global demand for livestock products (Boone, Conant, Sircely, Thornton, & Herrero, 2018; Herrero et al, 2016; Sloat et al, 2018).…”

Climate change and variability impacts on grazing herds: Insights from a system dynamics approach for semi‐arid Australian rangelands

“…Projected increases in the frequency and severity of extreme climate events (e.g. heat stress, drought and flooding) as well as drier conditions in part of the world, especially in arid and semiarid regions (Herrero et al, 2016;Kitoh & Endo, 2016;Warszawski et al, 2014), are expected to have significant negative consequences on herd populations as a result of decreases in feed and water quantity and quality, declined reproductive performance, heat stress, and increased disease incidence and mortality (as reviewed in Rojas-Downing, Nejadhashemi, Harrigan, & Woznicki, 2017;ThorntonSteeg, Notenbaert, & Herrero, 2009). These reductions in animal numbers threaten local livelihoods, especially in regions that are dependent on livestock as a source of food or income.…”

“…Climate change may result in reduced land carrying capacity and associated overgrazing, which leads to losses in ecosystem goods and services. Some regions in high latitudes may, however, not suffer these negative impacts, with pasture and livestock productivities potentially increasing due to more suitable temperatures (Herrero et al, 2016).…”