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| Perceived climate trend | Impacts on livelihood system | Coping and adaptation strategy |
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| Agricultural activities |
| Declining and erratic rainfall shifting rain season | Inadequate moisture for plants production (BI)
Decrease in crop productivity, e.g., maize (SE)
Changes in crops/varieties
Short and unpredictable planting season (SE)
Increased prevalence of new pests and diseases (BI/SE) | Cultivate in wetlands and low-lying areas
Change crop variety from long season to short season (A)
Use stored grain as seed reduced the overall area under cultivation |
| Extreme temperatures (heat waves and very cold winters) | Wilting of maize and tobacco has mostly been affected by excessive heat (BI/SE) | Water conservation techniques such as conservation agriculture and mulching |
| Persistent droughts | Household food shortages due to poor harvest/low agricultural output (SE) | Harvest wild fruits, e.g., muchekecha, and wild legumes such as Dioscorea praehensilis Benth (mupama), and the air potato, Dioscorea bulbifera (manyanya), and Rhynchosia venulosa (mukoyo) during drought periods
Harvest wild animals, e.g., rabbits, warthogs, and mice, and community/nutritional gardens
Off-farm jobs in nearby commercial farms
Cooking raw bananas and mangoes
Gold panning,
Selling livestock.
Barter trading, for example, exchanging 2
gallons maize with a goat |
| | Reduced household income (SE) | Rearing of domestic guinea fowls (Numida meleagris f. domestica) and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) for sale; bee-keeping informal trading; food for work; weaving and hand crafting; Off-farm activities, e.g., seek employment in nearby farms, and migrant labor in Zambia |
| Reduced rainfall and excessive heat drought | Deterioration on quantity and quality of livestock grazing areas (BI/SE)
Reduced livestock, e.g., cattle and goats, and reproductive rate and capacity has been affected (SE)
Increase in roadrunner mortalities and reduced reproduction (SE)
Increase in cases of climate-induced disease outbreaks (SE)
Shortage of water for livestock (BI); livestock mortality (cattle, goats, and sheep); livestock diseases (e.g., red water in sheep, goats, and cattle), and deteriorating health condition (all domestic animals) (SE/BI) | Livestock graze within wetlands and adjacent protected area
Store maize crop residue for cattle feed
Reduce livestock numbers |
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| Water resources |
| Reduced rainfall and high temperatures | Reduction in water sources due to drying up of water sources boreholes; domestic wells drying up before the end of the next rainy season (BI/SE)
Change in river flow from perennial to seasonal (BI); disease outbreaks such as headache, malaria, and diarrhoea (SE)
Lack of water for setting up tobacco seed beds (BI/SE)
Wetlands drying up | Dig deep wells along river beds and on wetlands
Women travel long distances to fetch water
Several households (e.g., up to 44) share same borehole |
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| Forest resources |
| Reduce rainfall | Changes in tree phenology (both domestic and exotic tree species), e.g., mazhanje and mango (BI)
Prolonged leaf senescence time in leaf fall for deciduous trees from August to October, tree leaves would be green but now the leaves have actually fallen off when they used to fall off only in August, e.g., mupfuti, munondo, mutsonzowa, mukonono, mutowa (BI/SE)
Most indigenous and exotic fruit trees including fruit trees are no longer producing fruit disappearance of reduced fruit production, e.g., Diospyros mespiliformis and muhacha (BE/SE) | Planting of indigenous and exotic tree species |
| Extreme temperatures (heat waves and excessive cold) | Premature drying up of fruits like nhunguru (BI) | Planting indigenous and exotic trees |
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| Soil resources |
| Reduced rainfall and excessive temperatures | Soil carbon stocks have been disturbed (BI)
Change in soil quality over time (BI) | Conserve our soils through the use of “madhunduru”; apply fertilizers |
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| Wildlife resources |
| Drought (2002–2008) | Habitat encroachment, e.g., human expansion of cultivation into buffer zone (BI)
Livestock depredation during the prolonged dry season; lions mostly follow after donkeys and cows; hyenas target goats wild animals; lions and hyenas attack livestock (BI)
Crop destruction (buffaloes and elands destroy tobacco and eat maize in the fields during March, April, and May
Bush pigs and baboons create a menace during the planting and harvesting season from December to May (SE) | Illegal hunting and harvesting |
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