Pastoralism and Climate Change Adaptation

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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 hindououmar_at_gmail.com
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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 WMOs
  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

• Nomadic and semi-nomadic 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

• 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

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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

hindououmar_at_gmail.com www.afpattchad.org
www.ipacc.org.za www.cta.int