ABSTRACT Kenya’s drylands constitutes about 80% of the country’s size. These drylands are prone to relatively high vegetation and general environmental degradation; translating to changes in soil physical and chemical properties. Conservation agriculture with trees presents an opportunity to reduce vegetation and soil degradation thereby enhancing soil characteristics and carbon sequestration, which is an important component of redressing dryland problems associated with greenhouse ...
ABSTRACTGeothermal energy could be Climate Change Resilient subject to technologicalinterventions employed in production. Kenya seeks to safeguard herself from ClimateChange and its cascading impacts through clean energy sources such as Geothermal.Possible interventions to Climate Change entail adaptation, mitigation and buildingresilience. Most geothermal resources are located in fragile yet vital ecosystems includingOlkaria and Eburru where the study focused on. A benign geothermal te...
ABSTRACTClimate change poses a danger to the current and the future generations. Sad to note though is the fact that although developing countries have contributed the least to the current mess, they will be more impacted due to their limited technology to adapt to the consequences. As a remedy to the current situation, formal education has been identified as a major tool of passing the required knowledge, skills and changing people’s attitude towards climate change...
ABSTRACTClimate change is a major challenge of mankind in the 21st century. While climate change existed even in the pre-industrial era, recent trends exacerbated by human activities have raised global concern that climate change is threatening the achievement of sustainable development. While effects of climate change have been experienced all over the world, developing countries will be hardest hit because this is where millions of the world‟s poorest people are already being forced to co...
ABSTRACTIndigenous plant species have salient socio-cultural significance among many peoples of Africa. In Kenya, certain plant species are important for ceremonial functions such as marriage and rites of passage. Among the Kalenjin, over 100 species are important for such functions. However, the species are relatively under threat in their occurence and abundance due to climate variations and impacts of development. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of climate change on the...
ABSTRACT Parasitic weeds are plants that have evolutionarily lost autotrophic way of life during their development stages. Dodder, a plant of the Cuscuta species, is one such invasive parasitic weed with a wide range of world geographic distribution and host diversity. In Kenya, dodder is common in counties at the Coast, Central, Nyanza, Western and Rift valley. The plant is alleged to parasitize on a variety of perennial crops, wild and domesticated trees and shrubs thus affecting host...
ABSTRACT Laikipia West district receives between 500 mm and 950mm of rainfall annually. It is therefore, classified as a semi arid region with harsh and fragile environment. The low and erratic rainfalls govern vegetation dynamics, animals‟ survival and the general human welfare. Frequent drought as a result of climate change has exacerbated and compounded the problem of provision of quality basic education in the district. This study was conducted to investigate drought prevalenc...
ABSTRACT The semi-arid Ijara sub-county borders Fafi sub-county to the north, Lamu and Tana River counties to the south and west respectively and republic of Somalia to the east. It occupies agro-ecological zones IV to VI, that change to V and VI, moving away from Boni forest with an estimated 1000km2 arable land suitable for crop agriculture. Temperatures range 15ºC – 38ºC with average relative humidity 68%. Rainfall data from Kenya Met Services 1970-2008 indicated shift from ...
ABSTRACT Climate change is a real phenomenon whose effects ought to be mitigated, based on assessments that are informed by scientific evidence. Trees in agricultural landscapes play a significant role in mitigating climate change hence a robust inventory of tree biomass in these landscapes is essential for the accurate estimation of their potential in sequestering carbon. Therefore, applicable allometric equations that yield accurate biomass estimates of trees in agricultural landscap...
ABSTRACTConservation projects can improve the livelihoods of community members as well as tackle climate change. Kipepeo project is a butterfly farming project initiated in 1993 to provide a means of livelihood for the communities living around Arabuko Sokoke Forest and also to conserve the forest. The study was carried out to assess the impacts of Kipepeo conservation project on livelihoods of local community and on climate change mitigations in Arabuko Sokoke Forest...
ABSTRACTDisaster risk reduction projects are some of the initiatives undertaken with an aim of addressing climate variability associated disasters such as droughts and floods and loss of agricultural production. The projects are normally aimed at reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience among rural communities towards climate variability and change. Results of adaptation measures undertaken by such projects to increase adaptive capacity of the communities remain largely under research...
ABSTRACTWater is life and the heart for existence in the biosphere. Where water is magnanimously plentiful, people and ecosystems thrive in abundance but in places where it is scarce, complex adaptation strategies and sophisticated civilizations have been born. Indigenous systems such as pastoralism have for centuries been flexible to harsh conditions of water and pasture scarcity but exogenous factors like climate change render them fragile. Currently, severe and abrupt changes in climatic c...
ABSTRACTDealing with declining coffee amidst challenges occasioned by climate variability is a problem affecting large-scale coffee production in Kenya. Climate variability has affected coffee output by changing distribution of pests and diseases, hindering growth and affecting amount of water supplied for irrigation. Kiambu is a major coffee producer in Kenya and coffee is mostly grown in estates. Climate variability makes it difficult for farmers to predict when to plant and interferes with...
ABSTRACTClimate variability is an environmental pressure to urban slum dwellers economic activities in most developing countries where households have been adapting to it for years. Slum dwellers are faced with inadequate access to water and proper sanitation. This problem is partly attributed to climate change. This research project aimed at exploring the adaptation and coping mechanisms of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum community in Nairobi City, due to poor water supply and access to basic sanitat...
ABSTRACTThe expected global temperature increase, more intense rainfall and more frequent droughts will have devastating effects on pastoral livelihoods. The economy of the affected areas also dwindle in the event of these calamities considering that droughts and diseases resulting from floods affect the health of livestock which is the major source of livelihood for the pastoralists. The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of climate variability and the resulting vector-borne di...