Why perceptions of climate change matter

Drought

A man walks past a carcass of a sheep at Maikona in Marsabit County in April 2019. 


Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Climate change poses a serious challenge to sustainable environmental and socioeconomic wellbeing in developing countries, including Kenya.

Understanding public perceptions of climate change is critical in order to develop effective and sustainable mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Awareness about climate change to rural communities has become widespread over the last few decades although there has been skepticism about the reality and severity of climate change.

Past research shows that there is a significant difference in rural communities’ perception on climate change.

This confirms the disparities among smallholder farmers on climate change adaptation practices.

It’s a fact that climate change poses a serious challenge to sustainable environmental and socioeconomic wellbeing in developing countries.

This is especially the case for countries in Africa, due to overreliance on climate-sensitive natural resources, including rain- fed agriculture for economic growth and development, trade, and food security.

Perceptions of climate change by rural communities are centred on observations of variations in temperature and rainfall patterns supported by observations and projections on climate alterations in the form of increased temperatures and scarce rainfall by scientists worldwide.

Despite this realisation of changing climatic conditions by rural communities, there is little evidence about the rural communities’ awareness on the link between the changing climatic conditions and utilization of natural resources.

This implies that the rural communities are unlikely to adapt new strategies for their livelihood sustainability.

As such, little is done to change their past and current behaviour such as overgrazing in the protected forests.

In Kenya, there has been a drastic increase in temperature in the past 15 years, which is likely to be responsible for excessively hot seasons and extremely cold seasons.

Perception of climate change among rural communities varies depending on the different socio-economic status and demographic dimensions.

There is conflicting evidence about awareness of changing climate and tendency to resist change and this shows potential mismatch between climate change variability and adaptation practices among the rural communities.

There should be effort by government and private institutions to enhance adaptive community development practices aimed at promoting resilience amongst rural communities.

Mwari Maina, Nyeri