YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - In the face of multiple urban climate challenges with rising temperatures ,persistent floods , drought and other climate threats that are menacing Cameroon’s major cities , the government is multiplying efforts for a green city drive as the country prepares to host the 2019 African Nations Cup.
Authorities say they have pledged to steer deforested cities from edge of climate disasters with a multi-facet urban city greening project.
"It is our responsibility to give our cities the much needed environmental facelift and make them safe now and in the future," says the minister of forestry and wildlife , Jules Doret Ndongo , at the launching of the 2018 tree planting season in Bertoua in the East region, May 4th.
The Minister of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development in collaboration with WWF and partners, on May 28 2018, on his part mounted the first ever giant biodiversity poster in the 2 international airports in Cameroon to walk the green city talk.
The event accordingly marked the end of 2018 biodiversity day celebrations and beginning of World Environment Day celebrations in Cameroon.
Environment experts say Cameroon has multiplied investment efforts in recent years in line with the government’s drive towards economic emergence by 2035 ,triggering rapid disappearance of its forested areas with expanding urbanization and population surge in most cities.
"Cameroon is on the move with multiple investments as the country pushes towards economic emergence. Unfortunate this also means sacrificing huge forested areas where these projects are located," says Zachee Nzoh Ngandembou,CEO of the Centre for Environment and Rural Transformation,CERUT, an NGO that promotes rural development in Cameroon.
A report by Global Forest Watch shows forest loss in Cameroon of 777,000 hectares between 2001 and 2015.
Experts say the deforestation has since 2016 aggravated with heavy investment projects in cities following Cameroon’s preparation to host the 2019 African Cup of Nations Games. Many of these infrastructures in roads, stadia and other sports training grounds,hotels ,urban housing scheme etc have seen large portions of hitherto forest lands sacrificed exposing many cities to scorching heat and high temperatures and other climate extremes.
"Forest losses not only hurt ecosystems and drive climate change but put the livelihood of millions of city dwellers in danger," says Paul Donfack, a consultant with the African Forest Forum.
The environmental impact of forest loss is really immeasurable with extreme weather like rising city temperatures, heavy floods, droughts and water shortages thus putting the lives of vulnerable population at risk, he says.
But the government is hoping the new urban greening forests project will help cities catch up with the loses.
"The new urban reforestation project will help boost the tree planting schemes launched by the government in 2017," says Bruno Mfou’ou Mfou’ou, director of forestry in the ministry of forestry and wildlife.
The government in 2017 launched a project to restore 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of deforested land to redress the challenges of dwindling forests and help mitigate the effects of climate change, he said.
"The urban city greening scheme is an addition to boost what the government started in 2017," Bruno said.
The sum of over 600million FCFA annual support to the selected city councils has been earmarked, he disclosed.
The project will assist councils deal with deforestation, climate extreme problems from flooding,drought and increasing temperatures, to water shortages as most city population and urbanization continue to swell.
« The city greening project will involve tree planting principlally targeting flood-prone areas, multiple recreational spots as well as the drought stricken Cameroon’s northern regions, » Minister Jules Doret Ndongo said.
The government accordingly has not been left alone in the city greening excercise experts say.
Earlier on March 21, during activities to celebrate International Forest Day forest stakeholders in Yaounde led by Green Peace and international NGO , launched a pilot green space project at the Baptist High School- Awai.
The forest experts called on the government to put in place national policies that will support sensitisation efforts about the importance of trees in urban cities.
" We call on the Cameroon government to institute a national policy that will ensure sustainable tree in cities," said Greenpeace Africa’s Environmental Ambassador, Biakolo Onana Alain.
Greenpeace Africa Forest Campaigner, Sylvie Djacbou emphasised on the need to protect the Congo Basin Forest. “By its sheer size, the Congo Basin Forest serves as a large carbon reservoir of global significance for regulating greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide. Greenpeace stands with local and indigenous communities to protect the forest against illegal industrial agriculture and land grabbing,” concluded Djacbou.
According to the government project plan,the multi-faceted scheme that will also boost the forest in the Congo Basin region,involve not only the planting of some 600.000 trees anually for the next five years but also supporting some water supply projects like rain water harvesting, boreholds as well as draining schemes and sewage disposal began by some city councils like Douala and Yaounde.
Council authorities say multiplying tree-replete recreational spots in cities will help inhabitants find safe havens against rising city temperatures and set refforestation examples that could be replicated in other coutries in the Congo Basin region.
Environment experts have saluted the scheme to engage city councils on a genuine green economy path that offers solutions for both climate and agriculture challenges.
« It is economically advanatageous if projects like these are owned and run by local councils.This is attractive for green private sector investments more generally, » says Augustine Njamnshi ,CEO of Bio-Resource Centre an NGO on environment in Yaounde.
Many cities in Cameroon like Doaual and Yaounde have recently suffered from water shortages, floods and other climate challenges attributed to disappearing forest.
In 2017 several roads and buildings in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala were submerged following days of heavy rains, trapping several residents in their homes for days.
Experts say this has been a common phenomenon across Africa.
According to a 2017 report by Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings Institute,Africa contains 7 out of the 10 countries that are considered the most threatened by climate change globally.
Extreme weather events are taking a toll on African cities which are growing rapidly and threatening the livelihoods of millions of people across the continent, the report says
The goverment local councils are however hopeful the green city project will help these cities find ways to combat these climate triggered challenges.
According to the government delegate to the Limbe Urban Council, the Green City project will in the long term make the touristic coastal town even more attractive to tourists and other visitors who love greeneries.
« Limbe is a town of friendhip and we are hopefull the creation of new green spaces will come to swell our visitors especially those who love greeneries, » says Andrew Motanga, government delegate to the Yaounde city council.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - This year’s World Environment Day (WED) comes when the ogre of corruption, threatening to tear apart the fabric of our society is dominating the national debate in Kenya.
The World Environmental day celebrated on the 5th of June every year, seeks to raise consciousness and rally people across the world on the importance of a clean environment.
Thousands of activities, including tree planting, clean-ups, workshops, conferences and rallies are held, depending on the context in various parts of the globe.
The theme of this year’s WED, is “Beat plastics pollution”, and is being hosted by India. This year, we focus on the environmental challenges we face due to the piles of plastics produced and dumped on land and sea every hour, and their adverse effects on the beauty of the earth and the oceans. The global focus on this theme brings the issue of policy making and intervention to the centre-stage, with a view to “doing something” to arrest the problem.
Thousands of trees will be planted during this day, while tons of plastics will be collected and piled at some safer place away from people and water. The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) will join several partners, led by the City County of Nairobi, to plant trees at Kikuyu Springs, one of the main sources of the water we drink in the city, which is threatened by encroachment by private developers, illicit tree poachers and degradation.
Planting trees and collecting garbage in front of cameras, as many leaders have done during this rainy season, is one commendable thing. And tending those trees to maturity and stopping garbage gettingpile-up should be a process rather than an event. These symbolic gestures by the top leadership should be followed by a more sustainable effort to harvest this goodwill by institutions entrusted to guard our environmental with preservation and protection.
But due to the runaway corruption which has passed the red line, any effort to reverse the damage visited upon the environment will likely be futile. Indeed, the report of the taskforce appointed by Environment and Forestry Cabinet Secretary KeriakoTobiko exposed the rot in the Forestry department and recommended drastic action against forest officials who have plundered this important national resource. One of the chilling revelations of the report is the fact that a whooping two billion shillings earmarked for a school forestry programme, was misappropriated. This is in addition to thousands of tons of trees which were felled by unscrupulous merchants in collusion with people who were entrusted with the responsibility to keep watch over our forests across the country.
It will therefore be a pointless attempt and narrow way of seeing things if we plant trees without minding whether the land on which we are planting will be a target by marauding land grabbers and speculators. It will also be waste of resources and valuable time if we collect all that garbage just for the camera, and when we go back home, we are the first to throw away that kitchen left-overs and bottles without thinking about their immediate impact on their destinations – land and ocean.
Tackling corruption of any magnitude calls for consciousness beginning from the individual level and our individual actions on the environment, as it should start with “me”. And that is how we should tackle corruption. If we resist that bribe, small or big, to stop the marauding land-grabber, we will see our trees growing.
The war on corruption cannot be won by the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) and allied Agencies if individual citizens remain indifferent. Whether in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, or the entire system of the government, the dragon of corruption will only be slayed if all people, the poor and the rich, the powerful and the powerless, the haves and have-nots, accept and join hands in all the spaces of work, whether in public places and or in private homes.
Transparency and Accountability are key provisions of the Paris Agreement, the global Pact to combat climate change, which poses the biggest threat to the survival of humanity and health of the planet. Plastics, which are also known as polymers, are produced by the conversion of natural products or by synthesis from primary chemicals generally coming from oil, natural gas, or coal. Science tells us that the fossil fuel-based energy sources such as oil and coal, as well as land-use and land-use change, are the main causes of climate change.
As we seek to fight one time plastics, as per the theme of this year’s WED, we are contributing to the goal of the UN Climate Change Convention and the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit greenhouse gases which are the primary causes of climate change. The Paris Agreement, to which Kenya is a signatory, envisions the challenge corruption, lack of accountability and transparency would have in the achievement of its overall goal, and particularly when implementing policies and mitigation and adaptation actions.
All climate response programmes supported by Donors, such as the forest management supported by the World Bank and which is supposed to be implemented by UNDP and the State Department of Environment, require high degree of transparency and accountability. In addition, it goes without saying that respect for the rights of forest communities like the Sengwer of ElgeyoMarakwet County should be upheld at all times. This will removes any barriers to project implementations to such noble ideas as the Shs.360 Million Programme, whose commencement has been delayed due to various issues, including disagreements with indigenous communities.
Many opportunities abound as the country readies itself for the implementation of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a set of actions under its Paris Agreement obligation. This will however be derailed by the nauseating reports from corruption, not only from the department of Forestry, but also other Agencies of the Government, the most blatant being the National Youth Service, as well as the National Cereals and Produce Board. The dragon of corruption should not be let to eat the yoke of future generations, nor should it be let to cannibalize the very sources of livelihood of the people of this great nation.
The writer is the Executive Director, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (www.pacja.org)
The Federal Government of Nigeria and the Tropical Wood Exporters Association of Nigeria, TWEAN, have commenced moves to stop the export of processed and semi-processed woods.
Disclosing this yesterday, the Secretary-General of TWEAN, Mr. Joseph Odiase said that the decision to stop the export of these categories of woods was initiated by the group and supported by the Forestry Department of the Federal Ministry of Environment.
Odiase also disclosed that a three-year moratorium has also been given to wood exporters to prepare for eventual ban of the export of primary semi-processed wood from Nigeria.
The group’s scribe explained that the idea behind the move to stop primary semi-processed wood export is to ensure more value-adding measures were added to these wood products before they are exported.
He further explained that the decision was taken by a Ministerial Committee on deforestation, afforestation and re-afforestation set up by the ministry of environment adding that the Committee decided on the matter in 2016.
Odiase also said that by the time the ban on wood export comes into effect, more job opportunities would have been created in the wood industry.
“The policy was initiated by the TWEAN because we want to do business in line with sustainable environmental and economic policies of the government of the Republic of Nigeria.
“We want to do business in line with the well-being of the nation’s economy and the Nigerian people.
“If we continue to export primary semi-processed and semi-processed woods, we will continue to miss the value that comes with fully processed woods.
He also added that wood exports have become revenue contributors and generators to the Government for afforestation drive. This development is in addition to the direct contribution of members of TWEAN/PROPMAN for tree planting across the federation.
“TWEAN has asked the government to allow for a three-year moratorium to let exporters key into the initiative by way of bringing in more wood processing equipment and machinery for wood industry, enhance the confidence of foreign investors and promote the transfer of technology.
The department of forestry of the ministry of environment has introduced a quota system thereby checking the volume of exports and controlling the activities of exporters. He also told Vanguard that more wood factories have set up across the country adding that only fully processed and fully finished wood products will be allowed for export from the beginning of the year 2020.
Confirming the development, Mr. Audu Ochuma, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs in charge of export at the Tin-Can Island Port in Lagos also disclosed that the agency had received a directive to stop the exportation of primary semi-processed woods early 2020
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) – It is a rainy season in Kenya, and the environment in many parts of the country including dryland areas is generally green. But two months ago in Kyenire village, Mbeere Sub-county of Embu in Eastern Kenya, it was Venanzio Njiru’s two acre farm that stood out as the only green spot surrounded by environment with dry grass and shrubs with brown leaves running into the horizon.
However, rainfall is for a short season in this part of the country because after it subsides towards the end of May as predicted by the Kenya Meteorological Department, residents may soon be subjected to another dry spell that may last between one and three years without the precious drops.
“This is how it has always been, hence a reason why I had adopt a smart way of surviving,” said Njiru, who has now invested in Climate Smart Agriculture through permaculture.
Using water piped from Thosi River some 10 kilometres away, the former street hawker in Mombasa has a mosaic of different types of crops that include cover crops, leguminous plants, fruit trees, among others intercropped with maize planted in zai-pits and even sugarcane. He also keeps cattle, indigenous chicken, goats, and despite of it being a dryland area, he keeps fish in his water storage ponds.
“Using very simple techniques, Njiru is one of the very few residents in this area who have sufficient food to feed their families, and have more for the market despite the tough climatic conditions,” said Wanjiku Wanjohi of Ishiara Parish, a Catholic church in Embu County.
The Parish is one of the faith based organisations on the ground, which have been interacting with residents especially smallholder farmers to identify best practices that could help in formulating a county climate change policy document that is responsive to the prevailing conditions.
The first ever climate change policy drafting initiative at the county level in Kenya is driven by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) in collaboration with Trocaire, and with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) where faith based organisations have been collaborating with community based groups and individuals to identify best practices at the grass roots level.
“Clearly, Njiru together with a few others have demonstrated that with access to water for irrigation, residents can easily adapt to climate change, an idea that we thought was an important factor to be included in the county climate change policy,” said Wanjohi.
Development of such policies dominated the annual summit on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Nairobi, where experts said that that was the only way of scaling up CSA, by moving from pilots to the implementation.
“We already have enough ideas and innovations. What we lack in many African countries is the implementation framework,” said Dr Richard Mungang, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator.
“We need policies to govern Climate Smart Agriculture, because without policies, there cannot be development,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Richard Kamau the Executive Director at the Centre for Agriculture Networking and Information Sharing at the University of Nairobi, who said that data to guide formulation of such policies should be collected from farmers on the ground. “We also need involvement of the academia, the public sector and all other interested groups,” he said.
According to Edith Ofwona, a Senior Programme Specialist at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), there is evidence to show that CSA can reduce poverty and eradicate hunger, and so, there is need for countries to develop implementation frameworks as the way forward.
So far, following the Kenya’s example, Njiru’s practice has already been anchored in the draft climate change policy document, which urges the county government of Embu to support establishment of water harvesting infrastructure and mobilize community members to undertake household level water harvesting initiatives and interventions.
According to Obed Koringo of PACJA, the document has already been internalized by the county government, and it will soon be taken out for public scrutiny before it is converted into a legal instrument.
“We can only allocate funds for such climate change interventions only if they are anchored in some kind of law,” said Nicholas Ngece, the Chief Officer in charge of Environment at the County Government of Embu.
“Through policies, we will easily have the private sector working together with the public sector and the banking sector so as to stabilize markets and increase financing,” Dr Munang told delegates at the Nairobi CSA summit.
The other two counties that are leading the way in development of community based climate change policy in Kenya are Kitui and Tharaka Nithi Counties, where both are also using faith based organisations to access communities at the grassroots level.
BONN, Germany, (PAMACC News) - If Paris was historic in carving a global climate deal, Katowice will define the political urgency for climate action.
Negotiations at the just ended United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, focused on the Paris Agreement Work Programme, under which countries are designing the guidelines that will move the climate pact from concepts to actions.
The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, at the concluding session, expressed concern at the lack of urgency in moving the negotiations forward.
“It is time to look at the bigger picture, see the severe impacts that climate change is having across the world, and rise to the challenge,” said Group Chair, Gebru Jember Endalew.
He expects steady progress be made throughout 2018 on all issues so that poor and vulnerable countries can engage effectively.
“A last-minute rush at COP24 risks leaving developing countries behind,” he said.
The Paris Rulebook
The Rulebook spells guidelines on how to put the Paris Agreement into practice.
There is a call for a fair, robust and transparent Rulebook that inspires confidence among countries to step up and commit to enhanced national climate targets by 2020.
They are essential for determining whether total world emissions are declining fast enough to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. These include boosting adaptation and limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.
“I am satisfied that some progress was made here in Bonn. But many voices are underlining the urgency of advancing more rapidly on finalizing the operational guidelines. The package being negotiated is highly technical and complex. We need to put it in place so that the world can monitor progress on climate action,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.
Progress on Agriculture
Recognizing the urgency of addressing interests in the agriculture sector, the Bonn conference made a significant advance on the “Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture” by adopting a road-map for the next two-and-a-half years.
Farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as prolonged droughts and shifting rainfall patterns, and agriculture is an important source of emissions.
This road-map responds to the world’s farming community of more than 1 billion people and to the 800 million people who live in food-insecure circumstances, mainly in developing countries. It addresses a range of issues including the socio-economic and food-security dimensions of climate change, assessments of adaptation in agriculture, co-benefits and resilience, and livestock management.
But not with Finance…
Without advances in the talks over the commitment of future financial support from rich countries to developing nations, who are already facing devastating climate impacts, it became difficult for other areas of the negotiations to progress.
LDC Group Chair, Gebru Jember Endalew, stated “Finance is key to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. In the face of climate change, poor and vulnerable countries are forced to address loss and damage and adapt to a changing climate, all while striving to lift their people out of poverty without repeating the mistakes of an economy built on fossil fuels. This is not possible without predictable and sustainable support."
Civil society also expressed some dissatisfaction with the finance dialogue.
“The radio silence on money has sown fears among poor countries that their wealthier counterparts are not serious about honouring their promises. This funding is not just a bargaining chip, it is essential for delivering the national plans that make up the Paris Agreement,” said Mohamed Adow, International Climate Lead, Christian Aid.
“For the Paris Agreement to be a success, we need the Katowice COP to be a success. And for the Katowice COP to be a success we need assurances that sources of funding will be coming.”
The Talanoa Dialogue
The Fijian Presidency of COP23 launched the Talanoa Dialogue to spur an outcome for enhanced ambition at the end of this year at COP24.
The first global conversation about efforts to combat climate change was witnessed on Sunday, May 6, at the 2018 Bonn Climate Talks.
The dialogue wrote history when countries and non-Party stakeholders including cities, businesses, investors and regions engaged in interactive story-telling for the first time.
The dialogue witnessed some 250 participants sharing more than 700 stories of climate struggle and inspiration, providing fresh ideas and renewed determination to raise ambition.
Seven groups, known as “Talanoas”, took part in the informal Talanoa tradition of sharing stories to find solutions for the common good. Participants discussed three central questions: Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?
The Dialogue has the goal of taking stock of collective efforts towards progress on the Paris Agreement’s long-term mitigation goal. It will also inform the preparation of parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the second round of which are expected in 2020.
“Now is the time for action. Now is the time to commit to making the decisions the world must make. We must complete the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement on time. And we must ensure that the Talanoa Dialogue leads to more ambition in our climate action plans,” said Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji and President of COP23.
Talanoa inspires discussion between countries not as negotiating blocs but as one of people to people. But it is important that this is translated into a clear political process.
The Polish Presidency must take up the baton from the Fiji Presidency and work with all countries towards a political outcome for stronger national targets by 2020.
Political Action in Katowice
All input received to date and up to 29 October 2018 will feed into the Talanoa Dialogue’s second but more political phase at COP24.
To be meaningful, the Talanoa Dialogue “must deliver concrete outcomes that drive an increase in ambition and support to put us on track to achieving the 1.5 degree temperature goal set in Paris, guided by equity and science," said Mr. Endalew.
Talks resume in Bangkok from September 3-8 where negotiators will pick up “informal notes” forwarded by this session. They will attempt to turn these notes and various inputs from countries into the basis for a negotiating text ahead of COP24 in Katowice, Poland.
“The science is clear: we need to get into higher gear to reach Paris goals and we need to have the courage to go beyond traditional politics. Meeting in the middle is no option this time,” said Marcel Beukeboom, Climate Envoy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
A stronger political leadership remains critical to achieve the major milestones envisaged for COP24 in Katowice, Poland.
The UN Climate Change talks are an integral part of a broader, worldwide debate on climate change.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.
“The time for stories has long since passed,” said Meena Raman of Third World Network. “We live in a world with over 1℃ warming and the devastation is already severe. We cannot allow for that warming to go beyond 1.5℃ and we need a political process to prevent that.”
ISINYA, Kenya (PAMACC News) - After losing nearly all of his cattle to drought in 2017, David Ole Maapia, a young Maasai man who grew up in Kenya’s Kajiado County as a herdsboy is one of many residents from pastoralist communities who are slowly changing their way of living, to adapt to the changing climatic conditions in the country.
“It is already raining, and there will be plenty of pastures in the coming months. But following my experience last year, and also what happened to my neighbours, I can no longer keep cattle for more than a day,” said Ole Maapia, a resident of Isinya Township, 56 kilometres out of Nairobi City. “Instead, I have chosen to bank all my wealth in sheep and goats,” he said.
The 32 year old father of five children lost 48 cattle following last year’s dry spell. And for the past six months, he has been buying cattle almost every day, have them slaughtered the same day before supplying meat to designated hotels in Nairobi. He then uses the profit to purchase at least two or three goats every market day.
I already have more than 200 goats and sheep, and I know by December, I will have over 1000,” he said. “If I sell all of them during the festive Christmas period, I will have enough money to purchase a small piece of land within Isinya Township where I intend to construct commercial houses as an alternative source of livelihood,” he said.
Many other residents have as well abandoned cattle keeping, which has for many years been considered the most prestigious thing among pastoralist communities.
Though without any formal education, Ole Maapia’s switch in lifestyle conforms with key findings from a new scientific study in Kenya, which shows that cattle have been the most vulnerable animals to climate change in nearly all the 21 semi arid counties in the country.
According to the study conducted by scientists from the Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), through a project known as Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE), average cattle population in all semi arid counties reduced by 26 percent between the year 1977 and 2016.
But the same study, whose key findings are currently being disseminated to targeted counties reveals that the population in sheep and goats increased by an impressive 76 percent in the same period, with camel population also increasing by 13 percent.
“This is a clear impact of climate change,” Dr Mohammed Said, one of the lead researchers told Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We say it is climate change because in the past 50 years, we observed increase in temperatures in all the counties with five of them recording more than 1.5°C increase in the same period,” he said.
The most affected county, says the scientist, is Turkana, whose temperature increased by 1.8°C in the past 50 years, leading to over 60 percent decrease in cattle population in the past 38 years.
According to the scientists, a research scientist, cattle can thrive well if average temperatures do not surpass 30oC and should not be below 10oC. But small animals like sheep and goats, and also camels can tolerate warmer temperatures, hence the reason why they were able to multiply exponentially in the wake of the rising temperatures.
“It is true that goats and sheep survived the 2017 dry-spell, and that’s why many people are now selling the remaining cattle stock to invest in animals that have proven to be strong enough for such tough conditions,” said Ole Maapia.
The Paris Agreement on climate change calls for international interventions to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.
At a county government level, four neighbouring semi arid counties in the country have come up with an initiative known as the ‘AMAYA Triangle.’ The County governments of Laikipia, Baringo, Isiolo and Samburu are now working together to address climate change so as to avoid resource based conflicts which are always associated with droughts.
Following massive deaths of cattle during extreme droughts, the counties are already establishing feedlots and fodder banks to help in fattening the most impacted animals, as a way of adapting to climate change, according to Laikipia Deputy Governor Hon. John Mwaniki.
“Climate change does not recognise boundaries. And so, if we solve a climate change related problem in Laikipia for example, without addressing the same problem in the neighbouring counties, then we will be creating a platform for conflicts among the residents,” said Hon. Mwaniki.
80 percent of beef eaten in Kenya comes from local pastoralist’s communities, and also from Uganda and Tanzania pastoralists. But with the rising temperatures, Dr Said feels that the most affected counties should begin investing in sheep, goat and camel value chains as a way of adhering to the prevailing conditions.
“The only way counties can adapt is by using such scientific projections to identify possible future scenarios and capture it in their spatial plans, because the current conditions are likely not going to be the same in the next 10 years,” he said.
