Climate change is expected to have an impact on pastoralism in Kenya due to increases in temperatures and losses from increased precipitation. Modest gains in production are expected from rising temperatures whereas losses are expected from increases in precipitation.  Overall, climate change will most likely lead to increased poverty, vulnerability, and loss of livelihoods among livestock keepers in Kenya.

In Ethiopia, grazing resources are managed among different pastoral and agropastoral clans in eastern Ethiopia. Social networks play a role in deciding on rights to grazing resources. However, constraints on these customary arrangements  such as clan politics and regulations can inhibit cross-border mobility. Climate change impacts are expected to increase the threats that herders face (especially in the form of rainfall variability).

Tanzania is making significant progress in the past two decades in achieving economic and political stability. However, Tanzanians are experiencing the impacts of climate change in their daily lives and increases in climate variability are affecting the economy which remains largely dependent on agriculture.

Livestock-Climate Change CRSP Research in East Africa

• HALI-2: Strengthening Tanzanian livestock health and pastoral livelihoods in a changing climate
• CHAINS: Climate variability, pastoralism, and commodity chains in Ethiopia and Kenya

In 2010, the LCC CRSP also funded several pilot projects in East Africa

• RPRA: Risk, perception, resilience, and adaptation to climate change in Niger and Tanzania
• CARBON: A cost-effectiveness framework for landscape rehabilitation and carbon sequestration in North Kenya
• PTRF: Pastoral transformations to resilient futures: understanding climate change from the ground up