Paper short abstract:

Biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation tend to be studied separately. We investigate the relationship between community-based conservation and pastoralists' climate change adaptation in northern Kenya. Results demonstrate the contradictory and contested nature of adaptation.

Paper long abstract:

There is now significant critical scholarship on the ‘green-grabbing’ phenomenon. However, the implication of ‘green-grabbing’ on communities’ climate change adaptation remains underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by investigating three interrelated issues with a particular focus on pastoralist communities in Samburu County of Kenya. First, the role of ‘climate politics’ in shaping Community-based Conservation -led climate change adaptation and second, perceptions and experiences of pastoralists on Community-based Conservation-led climate change adaptation. Conceptually, the paper builds on the idea of ‘climate politics’; the formal and informal dynamics with the potential to set and shape the meanings of climate change, its causes, consequences, and response to climate change. We find that Community-based Conservation imperatives occupied a notable space in efforts to strengthen pastoralists’ climate change adaptation. However, pastoralists are generally pessimistic about the potential for Community-based Conservation-led climate change adaptation. Nonetheless, they see Community-based Conservation as a route to improved rangelands health, increased income from tourism, enhanced access to formal education, and mitigation of inter-ethnic conflicts. These results demonstrate the contradictory nature of climate change adaptation and show how, in contexts of historically marginalized, highly vulnerable but transitioning communities such as pastoralists, ‘green grabbing' hinders climate and agrarian justice but may also result in adaptation strategies that are promising and that is valuable to the marginal population.