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- Convenor:
-
Gabriel Tati
(University of the Western Cape)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Gabriel Tati
(University of the Western Cape)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Climate change
- Location:
- Room 1199
- Sessions:
- Thursday 9 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
The impacts of climate change are being felt at different geographical levels across Africa. The panel discusses the role of the indigenous knowledge systems and that of the climate science in the generation of needed information for action in Africa.
Long Abstract:
Climate change affects the planet with different impacts. It is arguably one of the biggest challenges Africa, whichever the sub-region under consideration, has ever faced. African societies have traditionally relied on culturally and naturally embedded knowledge, learnt over centuries, to carry out pro-climate agricultural practices, protection of ancestral forests and rivers, limited deforestation, sea walling, dam construction, coastal marine protection and sustainable marine resources extraction. In the traditional societies, the reliance on indigenous knowledge contributed a symbiosis between mankind and nature.
Climate change occurs in a context of increasing consumption and production patterns that generate multifaceted vulnerabilities (food, water, health systems) that are central to the impacts that Africa currently experiences (cyclones, heating, flooding, rising sea level, to name a few). Such vulnerabilities are to be guided by knowledge brought about by either climate science or by indigenous knowledge systems or a combination of both to meet the demands for information. The panel addresses the following inter-related questions.
1) How is the warming climate experienced at the local level from a cultural lens?
2) What are the interventions being locally led, and what are the systems of knowledge production guiding these interventions?
'3) Is information about the climate change from the climate science complementary to indigenous knowledge , and how is this used in local production (farming, fisheries, urban planningand health services)?
Abstracts of about 250 words are solicited for this panel. The proposed contributions must be preferably built on empirical case studies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 9 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses peasant responses to climate change in Zimbabwe since 1992 within the context of indigenous knowledge, 'science' and government policy over time. It argues that communal responses to environmental phenomenon were complex, fluid and dynamic, depending on local realities.
Paper long abstract:
For centuries, agricultural activities have formed the bedrock for African economies and rural livelihoods. Indeed, the vast majority of Africa’s burgeoning population depend on rain-fed agriculture for subsistence. Yet, the physical environment on which agrarian processes take place has not remained static: climatic patterns and the land itself have changed over time owing to natural and anthropogenic processes. Within this context, this paper discusses the impact of erratic rainfall and periodic disasters such as floods on agricultural yields and food security since 1992, when Zimbabwe experienced one of the worst droughts on record. Using one of the most arid districts in Zimbabwe as a case study, it delineates the quotidian responses of communities to environmental change and diminished agrarian productivity within the local socio-cultural contexts, government agricultural and environmental policy and ‘science’. It employs ethnographic data, oral interviews and primary documentary sources to examine peasant interactions with their land amid unpredictable climatic conditions and state policy over time. Engaging ( scholarship on the nexus between indigenous knowledge systems and ‘western science’ in Africa, this article, shows previously unexplored ways in which communal responses to environmental phenomenon are complex, fluid and dynamic: peasant farmers embrace and discard aspects of both indigenous (cultural) knowledge and ‘science’ depending on circumstances selectively. In so doing, peasants subtly circumvented and resisted aspects of government policy they felt did not serve their interests while embracing what they perceived as beneficial policy as they carve their own niche as they respond to climate change and diminished livelihoods.
Paper short abstract:
Agroforestry is an approach saddled with diverse expectations. Whilst scientists laud the concept; the policy and institutional dimensions are neither prominent in research nor is there evidence of a scientific interest aimed at the development of coherent theoretical frameworks.
Paper long abstract:
Agroforestry as a concept has evolved from the initial goal of contributing only to food production, into an approach saddled with diverse expectations of a socio-economic and political nature. This is particularly a consequence of reframing the concept as an important development agenda; linking it to land management problems, climate change, food security and poverty alleviation. All these ascriptions have not only raised optimism, but have also influenced how agroforestry is advanced in the policy arenas of different African countries. Although the role of policies and institutions is paramount for successful agroforestry implementation, the policy and institutional dimensions of agroforestry remain scarcely researched. There is an inextricable link between research and policy. Decisions that are taken at different local and national levels are partly a reflection of how research has unpackaged the issue of agroforestry. This study intends to fill this gap and examines how research focused in the Southern African region has conferred policy and institutional issues of agroforestry. Results show that whilst scientists and practitioners laud the concept and attach substantial potential to it; policy and institutional dimensions of agroforestry are neither prominent in research nor is there evidence of a scientific interest aimed at the development of coherent theoretical frameworks. The study advocates for a shift towards a more policy and institutional oriented research process.