PTRF: Pastoral transformations to resilient futures: understanding climate from the ground up

Principal Investigator: Kathleen Galvin, Colorado State University

The PTRF project was developed to:

• Understand the most important climate/social changes affecting livestock management, marketing, and condition
• Understand pastoralist perceptions of climate change and how livestock management is adapting
• Hold workshops to develop locally-appropriate solutions to increased climate variability

Project Abstract:

An area of the world experiencing rapid change that threatens sustainability is Africa, and particularly the extensive livestock systems of east Africa, where rapid changes in climate, human population, and land use are transforming the continent. The African continent is warmer than it was 100 years ago: warming occurred through the twentieth century at the rate of about 0.5 °C per century. The current century is likely to see more rapid climate change, a challenge that particularly threatens poor nations and vulnerable people and the ecosystems they depend upon in the tropics and subtropics.

We develop here an interdisciplinary approach to understanding climate change, globalization and the future of pastoralism by first, conducting scientific research, second, building capacity and three, pointing a way to improve the livelihoods of Maasai pastoralists. We have explicitly used a sustainable systems approach that links humans, the environment and the livestock economy. Methods include focus groups, surveys and workshops. The purpose of this project is to understand climate and global drivers of change affecting two areas of Kenya, the Greater Mara Ecosystem and the Athi-Kaputiei Plains. We will develop an understanding of pastoral perceptions of climate and global changes and their effects on livestock management, the environment and the economy. We will then compare pastoral perceptions of climate change with meteorological trends in climate. Through data analysis and discussion in workshops of the different types of climate information we will solicit solutions to livestock problems  associated with these changes.