Living without buffers—illustrating climate vulnerability in the Lake Victoria basin

• Published in: Sustainability science Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 143 - 157
• Main Authors: Gabrielsson, Sara, Brogaard, Sara, Jerneck, Anne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Springer-Verlag 01.04.2013; Springer Japan; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adaptability; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Annan samhällsvetenskap; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; buffers; Calendars; capacity; Climate; Climate change; Climate Change Management and Policy; Climate vulnerability; Differential adaptive; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environment and sustainable development; Environmental Economics; Environmental Management; Exposure; Farmers; Fieldwork; focus groups; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hydrologic data; Kenya; Lake basins; Lake Victoria; Lake Victoria Basin; Lakes; Landscape Ecology; livelihood; Malaria; meteorological data; Natural resources; Original Article; Other Social Sciences; Public Health; River basins; Samhällsvetenskap; Sensitivity; Small farms; Smallholder farmers; Social Sciences; Society; Studies; surveys; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Tanzania; terminology; East African Lakes; Lake Victoria; Africa; Africa, Victoria L; Kenya; Tanzania; Sensitivity; Exposure; Smallholder farmers; Climate vulnerability; Lake Victoria Basin; Differential adaptive capacity; Climate; Adaptability; Environmental factor; Vulnerability; Small farms; Farmer; Farming
• ISSN: 1862-4065; 1862-4057; 1862-4057
• DOI: 10.1007/s11625-012-0191-3

Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity are essential, albeit theoretically vague, components of climate vulnerability. This has triggered debate surrounding how these factors can be translated into, and understood in, an empirical context subject to present and future harm. In this article, which draws on extensive fieldwork in the Lake Victoria Basin of Kenya and Tanzania, we illustrate how exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity play out in the context of climate vulnerability and discuss how they interact in situ. Using a mixed methods approach including survey data, rainfall data and a suite of participatory methods, such as focus groups and interactive mapping of seasonal calendars, we identify how climate-induced stressors affect smallholder farmers’ well-being and natural resources. Drawing on the seasonal calendar as a heuristic, and climate vulnerability terminology, we illustrate when, where and how these climate-induced stressors converge to constrain farmers’ livelihoods. Our analysis indicates that farmers in the basin face a highly uncertain future with discernible, but differentiated, adaptation deficits due to recurring, and potentially worsening, patterns of hardship.