Dr Stephanie Midgley
How invigorating to get out of the office once in a while and interact with “real people” in the region rather than names in your email contact list! The RCCP is first and foremost a programme and partnership for and with the people of Southern Africa. I am learning fast how people from all walks of life have a wealth of experience to share around climate change and how it is already impacting on their lives and work. From the subsistence farmers I have spoken to in Lesotho (end 2009), to government officials in Zambia (two weeks ago for an RCCP climate change survey), there is no doubt in most people’s minds that climate change is already happening and is here to stay. What I find so fascinating is how no amount of academic research and conference dialogue can replace the knowledge some people have of the interlinkages between climate and poverty in their local or national context.
“We need to invest in campaigns to help people realise that poverty is linked to the climate change phenomenon,” one official told me.
In the south of Zambia, recurring droughts and crop failures have forced farmers to migrate to the wetter, more forested northern provinces, where they are adding tremendous pressure on their new environment by escalating deforestation—mainly for charcoal burning. This leads to severe land degradation, which renders these rural communities ever more vulnerable to the impacts of more frequent heavy rainfalls, alternating with drought. This is a vicious cycle driven by poverty and high reliance on the land and its increasingly fragile resources.
Nonetheless, there is little understanding among the general population of the linkages between what they are experiencing “on the ground” and what is causing it (both climatic and human-induced). A number of people I spoke with in Lusaka made the point that local communities have been left behind in the dialogues and processes that are occurring institutionally at international and national level. Improved knowledge about the causes and impacts of climate change must be facilitated within the communities that are going to bear the brunt of the changes—they will be central in all efforts to adapt to the new conditions.
“Communities must be incorporated into all climate change activities, since implementation must take place within the local environment. They must have ownership of the processes so that they can appreciate the benefits that response actions will bring them. At present, there is a concentration of activities at strategic, tactical and operational level, but it hasn’t trickled down to the people,” one interviewee said.
As the RCCP moves forward towards developing regional, transboundary collaboration on climate change responses, let us not forget the millions of people across the region, each with a story to tell, who, armed with information and knowledge, would be able to identify what they as individuals and communities can do to partner with their governments and local organisations in addressing climate change.
Agriculturalist Dr Stephanie Midgley is currently in charge of research into land use and food security for the Regional Climate Change Programme, a five-year climate change response programme headed by OneWorld and funded by the UK Department for International Development.