Impacts of Climate Change on the Livelihoods of Farming Communities Adjacent to Protected Areas: A Case of Tarangire National Park

Jumanne, Halid (2019) Impacts of Climate Change on the Livelihoods of Farming Communities Adjacent to Protected Areas: A Case of Tarangire National Park. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

This study aimed to assess climate change impacts on farming communities' livelihood adjacent to Tarangire National Park. Random sampling without replacement technique was employed to obtain the sampling unit. Questionnaires, field observation, Focus group discussion and key informants’ interviews were conducted to obtain information from the respondents. Data was collected and analyzed by using IBM SPSS version 20 and results presented in tables and bar graphs. The study findings revealed that majority of the respondents perceived climate as prolonged drought and decrease of the rainfall. Also, they reported deforestation and agriculture activities as the major causes of climate change and high temperature, shortened growing season and decrease in productivity as the indicators of climate change. Analysis of weather trend shows insignificant decrease of total annual rainfall (R2 =0.1798) at 95% confidence level. The average monthly rainfall showed that, the area is characterized by semi-arid climate which is characterized by a prolonged dry condition with a bimodal rainfall type. The results found significant trends for mean maximum temperature on annual basis (R2=0.5678) at 95% confidence level. On the other hand, insignificant trend was observed in mean minimum temperatures on annual basis where R2=0.3378 at 95% confidence level. This study concluded that, climate change impacts to the livelihood of communities surrounding Tarangire NP are real due to the decrease in agriculture productivity. The study recommends awareness raising to the public about climate change and its impacts, conservation and proper management of the communities' forests and provision of improved seeds to farmers that have shorter growth periods and thrive well under harsh climatic conditions to provide high yields.

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