Climate Change Policies and Vulnerability of tropical forest communities

Investigators

Funding

An International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and The Open University funded PhD project, October 2009-September 2012. Supervisors: Hazel Johnson, Sue Oreszczyn, Theo Papaioannou.

Aims and objectives

The aim of this study is to assess the understanding of climate change related vulnerability of two indigenous forest communities in Kenya and Uganda and examine the impact of climate change policies on these communities, affecting on their livelihood and lifestyle. The study uses a vulnerability framework to illuminate their experiences with climate change, changing conditions in the society (politics, history, behaviour of individuals, environment) as well as how the communities interact with these changes.

This study seeks to fill the following knowledge gaps; One, the historical dimension to vulnerability that is more evident among research carried out on indigenous people including the Batwa and Ogiek.; Two, the first and second generation approaches to vulnerability to climate change, though well advanced, do not dwell on the effects of climate change and what these mean to what people value hence the need to look at this dimension. I use the capability approach as proposed by Amartya Sen to analyse this value dimension that is lacking especially when designing adaptation strategies that would be perceived as effective and legitimate by individuals or groups for that matter. The findings from this analysis help identify gaps for further research to analyse vulnerability to climate change.

Publications

Vulnerability to Climate Change: The Case of the Ogiek in Kenya: Nomads People Journal. Special Issue

Kamer- Mbote & Nyukuri. E. (Forthcoming) Climate Change, Law and Indigenous People in Kenya. Ogiek and Maasai Narratives, in Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples and the Search for Legal Remedies. Edward Elgar Publishing Company.

Presentations and events

Knowledge Gaps Conference: Tyndall Centre. University of East Anglia. Norwich. 11-13 April 2012

Planet Under Pressure conference: London International Convention Centre. 26-29 March 2012

UNFCCC, 17th Session of Conference of Parties. Cancun, Mexico, 5-14 December 2010

UNFCCC, 16th Session of Conference of Parties. Copenhagen, Denmark. 2-13 December 2009

Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change. Nairobi, Kenya. 6-7 July 2010

A repository of IKD Working Papers and other research outputs can be viewed at IKD Publications.