As the debate on the impacts of global climate change goes on at global and regional scale,
climate change impacts are already being felt at local level. The thesis aims at exploring climate
change as a driver of environmental and smallholder farmers’ livelihood vulnerability in Makonde
District of Zimbabwe. Specifically the study seeks to: determine climate change trends and
manifestations; evaluate household-level impacts of climate change and associated environmental
changes on smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and lastly; to investigate the extent of household-level
coping and adaptation strategies to climate change in the Makonde rural community in Zimbabwe,
especially farmers in Makonde Communal Lands. Given the fact that the subject under study is
multidimensional in scope, a mix of research methods was adopted in this case study. Whilst it is
largely qualitative in design, the study involved some quantitative data and thus, a triangulation of
different data sources and data gathering instruments was employed. The instruments used
include; key informant interviews, structured observations and a household questionnaire survey.
The analysis was based on a final sample of 434 out of the originally anticipated 500 households.
In addition to the households’ sample, were twenty key informants and transect walk observations.
The qualitative data was analyzed by means of coding, memoing, descriptions, typologies,
taxonomies and visual representations, whilst quantitative data was processed through the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and complimented by Microsoft Excel to generate
various forms of descriptive statistics. The findings suggest that climate change in the Makonde
Rural District that includes the Makonde Communal Lands has been significant during the past
thirty years. The climate change has contributed to significant local environmental stresses
affecting local resources such as forests, fauna, water, pastures and soil among other natural
assets. The local livelihoods show high levels of vulnerability to climate change due to notable low
adaptive capacity. The high level of vulnerability to changing climate is exposing the study
population to increased prevalence of: poverty, crop and livestock failures, food insecurity,
malnutrition, disease and rural urban migration among other impacts. The study concludes that the
factors creating barriers to climate change adaptation are related those contributing to poverty and
holding back sustainable local development. Among the key suggestions to enhance the
community’s climate change adaptation capacity, the thesis presents an establishment of a
government-driven, multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder intervention mechanism to help local
communities manage their vulnerability. / Environmental Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Environmental Management)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/13507 |
| Date | 27 May 2014 |
| Creators | Sango, Ishumael |
| Contributors | Nhamo, Godwell |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xi, 200 leaves), application/pdf |
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