The Causes and Effects of Climate Change to the Livelihoods of the Local Community in the Semi Arid Area of Central Tanzania: A Case of Dodoma Region
Keywords:
Climate Change,, Livelihoods,, Resilience,, Climate Change Effects,, Dodoma RegionAbstract
Understanding the causes and effects of climate change at local level is an important step towards planning, prioritizing, designing and execution of measures to climate change management. It is in this regard, this paper analyses the local causes and effects of climate change in the semi-arid areas of central Tanzania. In particular, a household survey and focus group discussions were used for data collection from Kongwa and Bahi districts in Dodoma region. The data were analysed using descriptive statistical method, content analysis, and Principle Component Analysis with Oblimin rotation. The finding on the causes of climate change in the area resonates around changes in climatic conditions, poor environmental management and lack of conservation education. Moreover, the findings on the extent to which the effects of climate change affect local livelihood sources and activities were depicted loadings of variables to the components. In particular, the pattern coefficients indicated that reduced water availability (0.82), reduced agricultural productivity (0.79), effect on the planting season (0.73), destruction of crops (0.71), and effects on the size of land cultivated (0.70) were the effects for component 1; reduced water availability for livestock (-0.88), reduced pasture for livestock (-0.86), and effects on the number of livestock (-0.84) for component 2; and effects experienced on socio-economic activities (0.86), natural resources degradation (0.83), and reduced household income (0.49) for component 3. From these empirical results, the paper concludes that climate change at local level affects a wide range of livelihood activities and hence the need for effective interventions. In that regard, this paper recommends the need for targeting the interventions towards addressing the question of water scarcity, promoting agricultural productivity, promotion of activities focusing on income diversification, and natural resources management.
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