Diagnosing barriers to climate change adaptation at community level: reflections from Silobela, Zimbabwe

Beyond climatic intervention: The social dimension of a biogas project in Sogwala village, Zimbabwe

“…External development agencies involved in environmental or climate management projects, for example, can easily harness such community networks to disseminate information and to give incentives for responsible environmental behaviour, or give sanctions on environmental insensitive practices in such rural settings. As Chanza et al (2018) warned, climatic interventions that fail to address the development needs of people are treated with suspicion and could be a driver of adaptation failure. Similarly, Gates and Lee (2005) stated that the question of social sustainability revolves around the prioritisation of basic needs or the improvement of human wellbeing.…”

“…Earlier studies indicate an average cattle herd size of 7.1 per household (Christensen and Zindi, 1991) but this is believed to have declined largely, because of climate change (Tavirimirwa et al, 2013;Masama, 2016). Threats to livestock production mainly emanate from climate change-related high temperatures and declining rainfall that deplete grazing pastures and water sources (Chanza et al, 2018). Notwithstanding these challenges, Boers (2012) reported high potential for domestic biogas projects.…”

“…The population density is 15.59 per km 2 and smallholder peas- ant families occupy state land (ZimStat, 2013). Chanza et al (2018) report that the livelihoods of rural populations in Zimbabwe are already showing signs of vulnerability to climatic forces. This unsustainable situation triggered the government, with support from development partners, to embark on the development of sustainable energy projects targeting rural communities.…”

Barriers to Effective Climate Change Management in Zimbabwe’s Rural Communities

“…In support, Yaro et al (2015) denote that barriers can be overcome by individual or concerted collective effort, changed way of thinking, reprioritization of resources, institutional support, and political will. From the view point of Chanza et al (2019), barriers are human or natural factors that impede adaptive efforts. As for Bhatasara (2018), barriers in the context of climate change adaptation are constraints faced during the adaptation processes.…”

“…Despite a plethora of definitions and characteristics of barriers submitted by different scholars, in this study, the researchers paid homage to the definitions of barriers that point to conditions or factors rendering adaptation less effective or factors behind low adaptive capacity of rural people. In light of the above, several studies on climate change adaptation reveal that rural people are saddled by an avalanche of challenges serving as barriers to effective climate change management (Chanza et al 2019;Nyahunda and Tirivangasi 2019). The understanding of barriers is an important escapade to gain ambient grounds to propose ways of dealing with them.…”