Climate change, rural livelihoods, and nature protection: The Rufiji Delta

project summary

To promote socially just, sustainable mangrove conservation, and climate resilient livelihoods, this five-year project aims to understand the interaction between local communities’ livelihoods, and changes in climate, ecosystems, policies, and institutions in the Rufiji Delta, Tanzania, which includes the largest areas of mangrove forest in East Africa and is the second largest river delta in Africa. The Rufiji Delta is considered of high ecological importance and included in a recently established UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve (“RUMAKI”: Rufiji, Mafia, Kibiti, Kilwa). Mangroves are important breeding grounds for tropical marine life and crucial for biodiversity and fishing. They also store carbon, protect agricultural land from storm surges and provide income opportunities for local people who rely on local resources due to poor infrastructure and lacking alternatives. Sediments are deposited in deltas, and although often illegal the resulting fertile land is in many places converted to farmland, thereby providing income to people through the extraction of mangrove trees and agriculture or livestock grazing. Therefore, mangrove forests are disappearing rapidly in many parts of the world, and Tanzania is no exception. Mangroves are also affected by climate change, leading to rising sea levels and increased frequency of severe storms, heavy rainfall events and changes in salt concentration and erosion patterns. All of this affects mangrove ecosystems, including fisheries, and leads to increased flooding of agricultural land. Further, conservation projects tend to generate uncompensated losses of access to resources for local people, and major development projects, such as the newly constructed 2 GW Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant, modify the seasonal flooding patterns and reduce river flow and sediment supply, thereby greatly impacting the mangrove and the livelihoods of people residing in the area. This project studies how local communities, across class, gender, and livelihoods, experience and respond to the effects of ongoing changes. Through data collection in different communities and different parts of the delta, the research will increase our understanding of the productive capacity and economic potential of sustainable mangrove forest management, the costs and benefits experienced by households due to changes in climate, policies and institutional arrangements, and people’s responses to these changes, both individually and collectively.