Climate variability, asset adapttation and rural livelihoods in Mtubatuba, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Climate variability and change are real and are happening now. In fact, if climate variability and change are not addressed urgently, it will affect most if not all the subsectors of the country. The aim of this study was to investigate the ways in which poor rural people of Nkombose, Ebaswazini, and Ogengele in Mtubatuba are affected by climate variability, and to understand the ways in which these communities are adapting to climate variability using the asset-based adaptation framework. The study utilised questionnaires to gather the various weather perceptions from the communities. Parallel to the human perceptions, the study reviewed meteorological data particularly to examine whether any climate variations have taken place in Mtubatuba. Furthermore, focus group discussions, listing and ranking matrices, and mind maps were used to determine the implications of climate variability on rural livelihoods. Lastly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with local authorities from the Mtubatuba Local Municipality to understand the municipality’s role in building the communities adaptive capacity and in responding to the impacts of climate variability. The research findings indicate that Mtubatuba like everywhere else in the world has been subjected to climate variability. Climate variability has presented itself in the form of droughts and severe thunderstorms. The empirical evidence suggests that the major implication of climate variability was the lack of water, which was attributed to inadequate rainfall amounts. The findings of this study indicate that droughts have resulted in reduced agricultural practices, increased livestock losses, reduced business and work opportunities. Therefore, this study demonstrates that rural communities depend highly on rain-fed agriculture to sustain their livelihoods. However, the study also established that the three rural communities are not passive actors as they are actively involved in developing ways of adapting to the impacts of climate variability. As such, the finding of this study suggest that the three rural communities depend more on adaptation strategies which are linked to financial, human, and social asset portfolios. Therefore, the local municipality and the government need to engage with the communities and make use of local knowledge as entry points in developing climate variability and change policy frameworks. Keywords: Climate variability and change, climate impacts, rural livelihoods, asset adaptation, adaptive capacity.