Perception and adaptation of pastoralists to climate variability and change in Morocco's arid rangelands

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, extensive livestock production in the high plateaus of Eastern Morocco, particularly of small ruminants, has been seriously threatened by climate change (CC). Negative impacts include reduction in rangeland forage production and water availability, increased poverty and inequality, and increased degradation of rangelands. Different categories of pastoralists have adopted different combinations of adaptation strategies, but the factors influencing adoption have not to date been investigated. This paper aims to identify the perceptions of pastoralists on CC, to analyze the adaptive responses of different wealth categories, and to determine the factors affecting the adoption of adaptation measures. The Mann-Kendall, Pettitt and Buishand tests and the standardized precipitation index were used to analyze the climate data. Data on adaptation were examined using the chi-square homogeneity test, Kruskal-Wallis test and binary logistic regression. The observed climate trends perfectly corroborated pastoralists' perceptions of significant changes in their local climate since the 1970s: a considerable decrease in annual rainfall and an increase in temperature and frequency of droughts and high winds. There were significant differences (Chi square = 7.603, p = 0.022, df = 2) between small, medium and large pastoralists in the frequency adoption of adaptation strategies, especially between small and large pastoralists (U statistic = 16.000, p = 0.009). The distribution of most adaptation actions also differed significantly between these two groups. Wealthier pastoralists have adopted a greater range of strategies, while poorer pastoralists have less diverse adaptation portfolios, and are more likely to adopt less advantageous strategies such as casual labor. The adoption of adaptation practices was significantly influenced by equipment, educational level, household size, herd size, training received, CC perceptions and agroecological setting. Public interventions to improve the adaptive capacity of pastoralists in Morocco's arid rangelands should be geared towards addressing these determinants and should prioritise small-scale pastoralists.

Identifying Strengths and Obstacles to Climate Change Adaptation in the German Agricultural Sector: A Group Model Building Approach

“…As seen in Figure 2 average temperature in the region has indeed been following an incremental trend. This was expected as there is considerable evidence highlighting that farmers' climate change perceptions are usually in line with the actual climatic data trends [11,13,14,16,19,28]. In regards to drought, in the preliminary model (Figure 5), the effect of drought on the water balance of the region and the factors leading to drought are not represented.…”

“…Perceptions, however, are significantly influenced by the level of education and access to weather and climate information [11,[13][14][15]. There is extensive evidence suggesting that farmer's climate change perceptions and awareness significantly influence their adaptation planning and adoption of adaptation practices [11][12][13][15][16][17][18][19]. Therefore, implementing an assessment of perceptions is a prerequisite to identify factors that could affect the adaptation process [11,19] of both of agriculture [14] and water resources [20].…”

“…Despite the significant number of studies implemented around the world exploring stakeholders' perceptions on climate change [10][11][12][14][15][16][17][18][27][28][29], to our knowledge, no previous studies have focused on collecting the perceptions of farmers and other stakeholders in North East Lower Saxony. To fill this gap and support climate change adaptation we implemented this Group Model Building approach.…”

Vulnerability to Climate Variability Induced Water Scarcity and Adaptation Strategies in Jawi District, Northwest Ethiopia

“…Where j starts with the first month or year of a drought and continues to extend until the top of the drought (x) for any of the i time scales. According to Snaibi et al (2021), drought intensity (DI) is defined as the ratio of drought magnitude to drought duration. It is often expressed as Mi/Li, where Mi is the drought magnitude and Li is the drought duration calculated from the SPI.…”

Climate Perception, Migration and Productivity of Maize Farmers in Ghana

“…Smallholder production has been identified as an important source of income by providing many poor households with employment opportunities in Ghana (Abdulai et al, 2017). Smallholder farmers' perceptions of climate change in the rainfed agricultural systems are important in understanding their response to climate change (Snaibi et al, 2021). For that matter, Maddison (2007) asserted that smallholder farmers with the cognitive ability to perceive changes in climatic events are often more prepared to tackle threats from climate change.…”