Community based adaptation strategies to climate change in Katosi village, in Mukono district

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing human society in the 21st century. And poor countries like Uganda are the ones hit hardest in such circumstances. Climate change has severely affected agricultural production and food production leading to high food prices. More so coffee production has been affected by the increase in temperatures hence making it difficult to grow this important export crop. Climate change has reduced water levels in a number of water bodies for instance lake Victoria at one time had its water levels reduced, thus paralyzing economic activities and putting at risk the lives of millions of people who depend on the lake for survival. In Katosi village effects of climate change have been depicted in the declining fish stocks and extinction of some species, increased incidences of malaria, soil erosion, low agricultural production among others.

A big part of Katosi village is located on a fish landing site which makes it a high risk area to climate change. The local communities have endeavoured to adapt to climate change in different ways for instance the farmers have resorted to using more agro- chemicals and disease resistant varieties, thus reducing production costs, fishing community has turned to other forms of livelihoods like craft making and sand mining and other members of the community have been engaged in tree plant and use of fuel efficient stoves to reduce on the amount of fuel wood used. Water conservation through rain water harvesting has been practised to adapt to climate change.

It's imperative to note that over time, households and communities have developed a number of adaptation strategies to climate change. Some of these coping measures can only assist families in the short term and can not deal with increased and more severe shocks. All in all the local adaptation strategies provide an important lesson on how Uganda can better prepare and adapt to climate change in the long term.

However despite of the existing local adaptation strategies to climate change nothing has been documented to keep the community and entire world aware about these local strategies. Therefore this project will go along way to document and disseminate this knowledge and experiences from the local people on climate change, to strengthen the strategies that have worked best and contribute to the sustainable development of the country.

The above contribution was extracted from the proposal, Community based adaptation strategies to climate change in Katosi village, in Mukono district, submitted to Climate Frontlines.