PhD candidates explore the impact of climate change at international conference
“Climate change knows no borders. Let us all join forces, mitigate its impact, and develop feasible strategies to improve the resilience and adaptive capacity of Afromontane communities, especially those that are marginalised.” This is the position of Jerit Dube, a PhD candidate in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, fully sponsored by the Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre (RVSC) programme on the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus. Dube’s research partly focuses on the vulnerability of female entrepreneurs to the impact of climate change in the Afromontane communities, specifically Qwaqwa.
Earlier this semester, Dube and Siphelele N Mahlaba, Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, attended the Open Science Conference of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) at the Kigali Convention Centre (KCC) in Kigali, Rwanda, where they both presented posters.
The Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) hosted the event on behalf of the Government of Rwanda. Seven hundred and forty-one onsite participants from 72 countries across seven continents attended the conference.
The focus of the guest speakers, keynote speakers, workshops and plenary discussions was on climate science, and covered the three themes of the conference: Advances in Climate Change, Human Interactions with Climate, and Co-produced Climate Services and Solutions.
Marginalised mountain communities
“As an emerging African scholar, it was such a great honour to represent the RVSC and deliver a poster presentation on the findings of one of my PhD research objectives, titled ‘Afromontane communities in a changing climate: Impacts of climate change on food security and water availability in Qwaqwa’,” said Dube.
She explained that her study found that Qwaqwa, as one of the Afromontane communities, is vulnerable to a diversity of climate change impacts such as reduced rainfall patterns accompanied by extreme temperatures. “Reduced rainfall patterns and extreme temperatures often lead to water scarcity, which also affects crop and livestock production in the region,” she stated.
Dube is of the opinion that mitigating climate change is a pressing challenge in marginalised mountain communities, where basic service delivery and climate-smart agricultural technology are lacking. “Urgent multidisciplinary research on how to mitigate climate change in Afromontane communities is needed. Attending conferences such as the WCRP provided an excellent opportunity to learn from climate science experts,” she said.
She discovered that taking early and proactive measures to adapt and build resilience is more cost-effective than addressing the impact of climate change after it has occurred. “Climate-smart agriculture should also be adopted to strengthen the resilience of female entrepreneurs practising small-scale farming. Additionally, farmers in Afromontane communities should be empowered with agricultural technology, rainwater harvesting knowledge, and technology to boost food production and increase water availability in this region.
Another important insight from the conference highlighted that diversifying food production mechanisms also increases the socio-economic resilience of vulnerable regions such as the Afromontane communities,” stated Dube.
Human activities in South Africa
In her paper, titled The nexus between climate change and human activities in South Africa, Mahlaba explores how actions such as deforestation and urbanisation affect the environment and climate patterns.
"This review highlights the consequences of habitat loss, biodiversity decline, and challenges for local communities due to climate-related risks. It emphasises the need for immediate, coordinated efforts, including policy changes and community-based actions, to protect the ecosystems and build resilience against the impact of climate change,” she stated.
In feedback, the audience recommended that Mahlaba further explores initiatives promoting local engagement in conservation efforts, as well as capacity building programmes and educational initiatives to raise awareness and build resilience among local communities facing climate risks.
For Mahlaba, the key takeaway from this conference was that tackling climate change effectively would demand a unified global response. In addition, she learned that it is imperative to advance climate science for a better understanding of its impact and to inform adaptive strategies. She found that the collaborative production of climate knowledge and solutions is equally critical, empowering decision makers and fostering resilient societies.
November 2023
Story: Leonie Bolleurs
Photos: Supplied