Determinants of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies: An Application of Protection Motivation Theory in Konta District, South Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change becomes a widely acknowledged and inevitable global challenge of 21st century. For developing countries like Ethiopia, it intensifies existing challenges of ensuring sustainable development. This study examined factors affecting climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies by taking in Protection Motivation Theory. The study draws on mixed research approach in order to assess the subjective understanding about climate change threats and identify the factors determining responses to climate change. While qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and interviews, quantitative information was collected using semi structured survey from 296 randomly selected farmers from different agro-ecologies. Qualitative data was dominantly analyzed using content analysis while descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze quantitative data. Almost all respondents (97%) perceived that climate change is occurring and threatening their wellbeing. Dwindling precipitation, increasing temperature and occurrence of human and animal disease were perceived to represent climate change. From nationally initiated strategies, farmers were found to largely practice soil and water conservation and agricultural intensification, which they perceived less costly and compatible to their level of expertise. The result of binary logistic regression revealed that perceived severity of climate change, perceived susceptibility to climate change threat, perceived own ability to respond, response efficacy and cost of practices predicted farmers motivation to practice climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Thus, building resilient system should go beyond sensitizing climate response mechanisms. Rural development and climate change adaptation policies should focus on human capital development and economic empowerment which would enable farmers pursue context specific adaptation and mitigation strategies thereby maintain sustainable livelihood.

Climate change adaptation behaviour of forest growers in New Zealand: an application of protection motivation theory

“…Protection motivation theory (PMT) has been extensively used for some time now to explain adaptation behaviours and is used to explain the effects of fear on health-related behaviours (Rogers 1975(Rogers , 1983). It has recently been extended to natural environmental hazards such as droughts (Truelove et al 2015), flood risks (Babcicky and Seebauer 2019;Le Dang et al 2014) and climate change adaptation and mitigation among farmers and smallholder land managers (Bostrom et al 2019;Dang et al 2012;Fischer 2019;Ghanian et al 2020;Grothmann and Patt 2005;Regasa and Akirso 2019). A PMT socio-cognitive model is more suitable for predicting proactive adaptation to climate change risk such as flooding than a model using socioeconomic variables (Grothmann and Patt 2005) as PMT assumes that an individual's motivation to protect themselves from any risks is the main reason to direct behaviour against existing threats (Fig.…”

“…Due to the small number of samples, we applied regression analysis, which allows the assessment of a single dependent variable (i.e. response measure) at a time to be explained and in addition we have used the commonly applied method of PMT (Bubeck et al 2013;Dang et al 2012;Regasa and Akirso 2019). However, the PMT structure consists of two endogenous variables, protection motivation and non-protective responses, which would be better explained using structural equation modelling to analyse the interrelationships among the PMT components.…”

Improving the Representation of Climate Change Adaptation Behaviour in New Zealand’s Forest Growing Sector

“…The Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) is another psychological theory that explains forest owners' behaviour [54,60]. PMT was originally developed based on the expectancy value theory to explain the effects of fear appeals on health attitudes and behaviours [52,53]. Later, Milne et al [61] further developed PMT to include decision-making in response to threats.…”

As California burns: the psychology of wildfire- and wildfire smoke-related migration intentions

“…On balance, coping appraisal appears to be positively associated with adaptive behaviors and intentions in the face of climate hazards (Bubeck et al, 2012 ; Hall & Slothower, 2009 ). Self-efficacy has been shown to be positively associated with adaptive intentions and behaviors for individuals in climate hazard-prone areas (Burnham & Ma, 2017 ; Gebrehiwot & van der Veen, 2015 ; Regasa & Akirso, 2019 ; Ung et al, 2016 ). In some cases, response efficacy demonstrated the same relationship (Gebrehiwot & van der Veen, 2015 ; Regasa & Akirso, 2019 ).…”

“…Self-efficacy has been shown to be positively associated with adaptive intentions and behaviors for individuals in climate hazard-prone areas (Burnham & Ma, 2017 ; Gebrehiwot & van der Veen, 2015 ; Regasa & Akirso, 2019 ; Ung et al, 2016 ). In some cases, response efficacy demonstrated the same relationship (Gebrehiwot & van der Veen, 2015 ; Regasa & Akirso, 2019 ). While the direction of this association appears to be relatively consistent across studies examining general protective behaviors, there is a limited understanding of how coping appraisal relates to migration behavior specifically.…”