Seasonal pattern of climate vulnerability and adaptation in the Lake Victoria basin – Identifying needs and opportunities using a multi-stakeholder approach. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Conference, San Diego

Important factors behind high levels of vulnerability and low adaptive capacity to climate variability and change in the developing world are direct reliance on natural resources, poverty and limited abilities to adapt financially and institutionally. In this study, focusing on the Lake Victoria Basin, a multitude of stressors on livelihoods, including climate related factors, are faced by the rural communities. The aim of the study is to disclose the annual pattern of these combined stressors, under both typical as well as more extreme climate conditions in order to reveal periods of particular hardship as well as recovery in the studied communities in Kenya and Tanzania.

Data has primarily been collected through focus group interactions around seasonal calendars during fieldwork in September 2009 and a regional stakeholder meeting planned for January 2010. Key themes of the calendars consisted of climate and health patterns, agricultural and animal husbandry activities, on- and off-farm household incomes as well expenditures. A considerable increase in adaptive capacity was found among those farmers involved in formalized village groups based on their pooling of labor and assets, agro-forestry activities, and the village savings and loans. The planned stakeholder meeting aims at exploring important local to national links that can strengthen existing adaptation and identify new cooperation possibilities.