Indigenous people are using riparian based nature-based solution to mitigate against climate change: insights from the Shangani people in Zimbabwe on the Runde and Mwenezi Rivers

Background and Introduction

Projections show that by 2025 approximately 480 million people in Africa could be living in water stressed areas. Changes in the flow regime of rivers (due to anthropogenic or natural factors) results in damage to riparian ecosystems thereby compromising the goods and service delivery by these systems. Despite this,  riparian ecosystems generally act as safety nets for those areas where surface water is scarce. Africa is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change mainly because of its reliance on natural resources. Climate induce extreme events such as persistent droughts, low and unreliable rainfall and heat waves are now common in most parts of Africa.  This has led to low agricultural production, severe water scarcity, loss of rangelands leading to livestock mortalities during severe droughts in the semi-arid zones. 

Indigenous peoples (IPs), particularly women possess rich local ecological knowledge on riparian based ecosystem goods and services. This has enabled them to survive the vagaries of climate change induced droughts in semi-arid parts of Zimbabwe. The indigenous Shangaan people in Chiredzi district of Masvingo Province, southeastern Zimbabwe are located within the edge of protected areas in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA).  This project focused on communities located along the two major rivers i.e Runde River and Mwenezi River. The communities rely on the rivers for several socio-economic activities including irrigation agriculture. Indigenous peoples also rely on a variety of riparian based non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to mitigate against climate change impacts. They found this as a viable option mainly because rain fed dry land agriculture productivity is very low and so they have resorted to nature-based solutions to sustain their livelihoods.

The ward (6, 11, 13 and 15) communities in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area component in  Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, for example have degraded rangelands with inadequate pasture to sustain livestock throughout the year.  Quite often,  the local communities conflict with the Gonarezhou National Park protected area management when they graze their livestock in the national park. Due to poor farm yield because of persistent erratic rainfall some households resort to illegal fishing in the Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) as well as poaching of other small and large game through various means which including snaring.  As rain-fed agriculture is no longer reliable, in a bid to find alternative livelihood options, women in the Zimbabwe component of the GLTFCA are left alone to look after their families yet with the least access to resources to be able to respond to the effects of climate change. The Indigenous Peoples live in the natural environments and see the change, but we don’t see that change yet solutions are devised elsewhere. They need a voice to contribute to global discussions and present solutions which are specific and relevant to them.

Lessons learned

This project therefore provides evidence on the need to include indigenous voices in the fight against climate change.  The project emphasizes on the need to documenting and promoting positive nature based riparian based coping and adaptation strategies thereby building community resilience. The project helps people and the environment to adapt and prepare for the impacts of climate change on riparian zones which are already threatened by multiple anthropogenic stressors. The project also aimed at raising awareness on the need to safeguarding riparian forests as natural sinks thereby keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.

Key lessons learnt from this projects is women indigenous peoples possess vast local ecological knowledge which can contribute towards documenting of nature base solutions to the impacts of climate change. The Shangani Indigenous women can narrate how the changing climate had impacted the flow regime of the Mwenezi River and phenology and availability of flora and fauna from their vicinity. The key species used included Adansonia digitata, Tamarindus indica and the Strychnos species (S. cocculoides and S. madagascariensis). The major use categories were on food and medicine with livestock feed also being a major plant use category. Indigenous women can therefore champion nature based solutions to climate change impacts as custodians of natural resources among the IPs.

Women empowerment through capacity building and participation is critical towards sustaining livelihoods and promoting climate resilience among IPs.  Climate change related projects need to promote participation of marginalised yet indigenous peoples to ensure that their voices are heard in making decisions towards climate action. Reliance on non-agriculture-based livelihood options such as NTFPS are key to survival for the vulnerable IPs. However, the major challenge which needs to be addressed is the mechanisms to ensure PAs allow the IPs access to natural resources which sustain their livelihoods. Such provisioning ecosystem services include fishing, grazing spaces, indigenous medicines and food products.   Indigenous peoples and local communities rely on the riparian for riparian based activities such as water harvesting, grazing spaces for livestock and irrigation to counter the effects of climate change. The communities in ward 15 harness water from the river systems to grow fodder for their livestock during the dry season. Harvesting of natural resources and fishing are some of the key coping strategies from the effects of series of droughts being experienced in the area.  

Nature based climate change adaptation strategies are key to sustaining livelihoods among the Shangaan Indigenous people in semi-arid parts of Zimbabwe. Riparian goods and service particularly freshwater, fish and indigenous food products play a vital role towards sustaining livelihoods in dry land savannah ecosystems. The study realised that the Indigenous Peoples possess undocumented traditional knowledge on traditional management of the riparian zone. This knowledge is useful towards promoting nature based to climate change impacts while at the same time conserving the riparian zone as a livelihood safety net and key zone for carbon sequestration.