Social capital for adaptation to climate change in the Mara river basin, Kenya

Abstract

The social context within which climate change is experienced can determine the ease of adapting to the crisis. This has brought to fore the potential that social capital holds in building the adaptive capacity of communities. The designated study area was the Mara River Basin, a trans boundary basin and a major contributor to the East African Economy. The river basin has reported evidence of negative impacts of climate change. The study was inspired by the realization that current empirical studies in the Mara River basin have focused on the ecological aspects of climate change and overlooked the human aspects and how the affected populations are utilizing social capital to adapt to this crisis. Further, the study acknowledged that most of the adaptation strategies accounted for in academic discourse are reported from the perspective of developed countries. The study is significant because it draws attention to how social networks may dictate the pace and direction of adaptation to climate change. The study also contributes to literature on social aspects of climate change within the context of a developing country. The study objectives were to; explore the dimensions of social capital found within the basin; establish the role of social capital in facilitating community understanding of climate change; and explore the ways in which social capital contributed towards strategies for adaptation to climate change along the Mara River Basin. Social capital theory attributed to Bourdieu (1986), Coleman (1988) and Putnam (1993), was used to explain the different concepts of the study. The study used cross sectional descriptive design. Yamane’s (1967) formula was used to sample 400 adults to whom questionnaires were administered for quantitative data collection. Qualitative data was collected from 24 participants of FGDs and 12 purposively sampled key informants. Quantitative data was cleaned, coded, entered and analyzed in SPSS 21.0 to generate means and frequencies. A content analysis was done for the qualitative data, which was then arranged into thematic areas guided by the study objectives. The findings indicated that the study area was endowed with both structural and cognitive social capital embedded within the existing social structures and organizations. Social capital contributed to the residents understanding of the climate change crisis by easing information flow between the actors within networks. Social capital further contributed to climate change adaptation efforts by reducing financial, physical and psychological costs of implementation of adaptation activities. The study concluded that the presence of social capital was significant for the functioning of the study area because it influenced information flow and fostered collective action towards addressing climate change. The study recommends that policy makers and climate change stakeholders should strengthen the existing social capital to enhance the communities’ adaptive capacity in responding to climate change. There is also need take into account local understandings of the climate crisis to establish existing gaps and allow for context specific climate planning. Finally, there is need to appreciate the role played by social capital in reducing adaptation costs and incorporate it into formal discussion aimed at developing strategies against the climate crisis.