Supporting pastoralists' adaptation to climate change: Beyond "one size fits all"

Government adaptation policies tend to assume that “one size fits all”, i.e. that support to pastoralists’ adaptation can be done in the same way everywhere. However, our research shows that:

• Pastoralist adaptation strategies are heterogeneous and dependent on the resources accessible in particular locations.

• Pastoralist adaptation strategies differ across land tenure systems, i.e. in areas with communal land ownership pastoralist adaptation strategies may be different from areas with individual land ownership.

• Pastoralist adaptation choices furthermore vary depending on a household’s wealth. Women and men also often have different adaptation strategies.

This has implications for adaptation interventions. Our recommendations are:

1. There is a need to develop adaptation policies that support pastoralists own adaptations strategies and -needs, rather than implementing the same universal top-down solutions across the country. Adaptation policies and plans to support pastoralist adaptation should be more localized and suited to the particular strategies and challenges of pastoralists in a given area.

2. These plans can be developed through bottom-up processes at county and community level, with inclusion of pastoralist groups from different areas and from different types of different wealth groups and genders.

3. Local adaptation planning should consider the composite nature of adaptation strategies, i.e. that households are often pursuing several types of adaptation at the same time (e.g. mixing improved livestock breeds with more crop farming and off-farm incomes).

4. Further, there is a need for both the county and national government to address the differentiated concerns, such as the land use planning needs to consider land and water access infrastructure, marketing, and hay and fodder distribution centres to support pastoralists' adaptation pathways.