Vulnerability of mountain communities to climate change and natural resources scarcity in Northwest Ethiopia: the case of Debark Woreda

Yohannes Belay Azene; Menberu Teshome Zeleke; Addisu Baye Chekole

doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2018.061.1467

Vulnerability of mountain communities to climate change and natural resources scarcity in Northwest Ethiopia: the case of Debark Woreda

Yohannes Belay Azene, Menberu Teshome Zeleke, Addisu Baye Chekole

J. Degrade. Min. Land Manage. , pp. 1467-1482

Viewed : 976 times

DOI https://doi.org/10.15243/jdmlm.2018.061.1467

Abstract

In recent decades, climate change causes distressful shocks upon the poor people’s natural resources and socio-economic processes from local up to global scales. The crisis is more severe in Ethiopia, where harsh ecological changes are frequent. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the vulnerability levels of rural communities to climate change and natural resources scarcity in Debark woreda, Northwest Ethiopia. Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and IPCC methods were used to analyze the data. The meteorological data reveal a declining precipitation trend by 61.13 mm in the past 31 years whilst maximum and minimum temperatures increased by 0.62 ⁰C and 0.74 ⁰C respectively. The LVI result indicates that the Debark community is highly vulnerable with land (0.59) and forest (0.57) scarcity. Water scarcity (0.50) and climate exposure (0.30) put them in a vulnerable class. Both the total LVI (0.48) and LVI-IPCC (-0.69) approaches placed the woreda community again in a vulnerable position. The findings imply that climate change should be placed within the broader context of development strategy and rural poverty reduction. Particularly, concerted efforts should be exerted to participatory integrated watershed management strategies supported with farmers training to ensure sustainable development of natural resources. Farmers’ best natural resource conservation practices should be incorporated in the local plans.

Keywords

climate change; Debark woreda; Ethiopia; livelihood vulnerability index; natural resource scarcity; vulnerability

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