Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation for Agro-Pastoral Communities in Kongwa District

PART I: PROJECT/PROGRAMME INFORMATION

    Project/Programme Category: Regular Project
    Country/ies:                United Republic of Tanzania
    Title of Project/Programme: Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation for Agro-Pastoral Communities in
    Kongwa District
    Type of IE (Entity:      NIE/MIE):       National Implementing Entity (NIE)
    Implementing National Environment Management Council (NEMC)
    Executing Entity/ies:      The Foundation for Energy, Climate and Environment / Kongwa District Council
    Amount of Financing Requested: 1,200,000 (In U.S Dollars Equivalent
        Project Background
         Description of the problem which the project aims to solve
With the emerging challenges of climate change and climate variability, many socio-economic sectors in Tanzania
are vulnerable to climate related risks. These include water, where there is a general drying trend of natural water
springs and rivers, energy where the hydropower performances are frequently interrupted by drought events,
agriculture where crops and livestock suffer the impacts of drought and flooding and increasing occurrences of
epidemics from pests and diseases in the health sector1. In general, more than 70% of natural disasters in Tanzania
are climate related. They are linked to droughts and floods and these have become more frequent as a result of
climate change and climate variability. Several studies conducted in various regions and districts in the United
Republic of Tanzania, indicate that rural areas especially agro-pastoral communities have been experiencing the
effect of climate change through crop failures, decreased crop yields, increased water scarcity and sometimes
shrinkage and drying of grazing lands/pastures due to increased and intensified drought periods2. The predominance
of more bad years as commonly referred by communities in rural areas of Tanzania have negatively impacted
farmers‘ livelihoods, their economies and social life3. In Kongwa district for example, worryingly, farmers are
reporting that both the timing of rainy seasons and the pattern of rains within seasons are changing. These
observations of change in climate are striking in that they are widespread throughout the district and are pronounced
in remarkably consistent terms in almost all villages of the district.
Over the past decades, the seasons appear to have shrunk in number and variety, such that what was termed as good
seasons are truncated or have disappeared. Nowadays, people‘s experience in most villages of Kongwa district
including other parts of the country is that seasons are progressively being replaced by a more simplified pattern of
events whose characteristics are predominantly hot (hotter) and dry or hot (hotter) and wet4. Rains are more erratic,
coming at unexpected times in and out of seasons. In particular, there is less predictability as to the start of rainy
seasons. Generally, in most cases rainy seasons are shorter. Dry periods have increased in length and drought is
more common. Within recognizable seasons, unusual and ―unseasonable‖ events are occurring more frequently,
including heavy rains in dry seasons, dry spells in rainy seasons, storms at unusual times and temperature
fluctuations. It is now common to witness rains which are more violent and intense and punctuated by longer dry
1
  TMA, (2014).Climate change projection for Tanzania: A report Submitted to the Government of Tanzania. Dar es Salaam 33p.
2
    Ahmed, S.; Deffenbaugh, N.; Hertel, T.; Lobell, D.; Ramankutty, N.; Rios, A.; Rowhani, P. Climate volatility
and poverty vulnerability in Tanzania. Glob. Environ. Chang. 2011, 21, 46–55.
3
  Bwire, M.K. (2016).Impact of climate change and variability on coastal Penaeid shrimp abundance in Rufiji delta, Tanzania. PhD thesis,
submitted to the University of Dar esSalaam 295 pp
4
  URT 2014. Agriculture Climate Resilience Plan 2014-2019


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spells within the rainy seasons. These kinds of rains, they may also come at unusual times5. The impacts of such