Transcript Pastoralism and Climate Change Adaptation

Pastoralism and Climate
Change Adaptation
Where Mbororo People and Official Science Meet
By Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
AFPAT Coordinator
IPACC Sahel Region Represent
Mbororo From Chad
[email protected]
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Introduction
The value of grassroots involvement in
climate-related decision-making has
received attention in several official climate
policy documents
 Nonetheless minority groups including
indigenous people (e.g. mobile people /
pastoralists) are still largely excluded from
climate-related decision-making
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Introduction (cont.)
◦ Climate science and related information can be
used to great advantage to avoid and manage
climatic risks and to take advantage of the
opportunities arising from changed climate
conditions
◦ IPACC delegates in partnership with the WMO’s
WCC3, IPACC, AFPAT, CTA and ASISO
implement the the project “Influencing regional
policy processes in Climate Change Adaptation
through the merger of African pastoralist traditional
knowledge and atmospheric science”
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Traditional knowledge systems
and climate change

Climate change impacts
on local ecosystems and
livelihood patterns
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The Case of the Mbororo People
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About the Mbororo
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Nomadic and seminomadic herders
Living in Cameroon, the
Central African Republic,
Chad, Niger and Nigeria
250.000 in Chad (1993
census)
Building on traditional
knowledge systems to
cope with seasonal
weather patterns and
sustainably manage
meagre resources
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Challenges
Climate change &
increasing restrictions
on mobility
 Increasing distances
 Loss of livestock
 Change of lifestyle
 Distinctive needs
rarely addressed

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Bridging knowledge systems
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Climate science uses modern monitoring and
forecasting systems to generate and provide a
wide range of information on past, present and
future
Local decision making: information & other
factors e.g. social networks, local loyalties,
cultural values, intuition, beliefs and age-old
trust in traditional predictive systems
Ordinary people experience great difficulties
in making their voice heard by scientists
Communication challenges between all of the
above
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The traditional knowledge of Mbororo people
allows them to predict atmospheric conditions
EXEMPLES
 The size and the shape of fruits produced by
a certain palm tree may indicate whether or
not the coming year will be good
 Abundant offspring of a certain type of lizard
is a predictor of a good season
 Changes in the direction of the wind from
East to West are an indicator of rain that will
last for days
 Although the sky may be clear, the
occurrence of a particular insect species
indicates that it is about to rain
Way forward
 Participatory use of tested ICTs to document
Traditional Knowledge
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Way forward
 Multi-stakeholder dialogue and
exchange
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THANK YOU
[email protected]
www.afpattchad.org
www.ipacc.org.za
www.cta.int
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