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.