Climate change and conflict

The project team would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for their assistance with the research: Matt Rice, Patrick Siparo and Tom Lesarge of the Northern Rangelands Trust for their support in identifying community conservancies and for facilitating the fieldwork; the members of Lekurruki and Sera Conservancies that hosted the fieldwork and enthusiastically participated in t [...] What is notable is the disconnect between these two policies: the NCCRS emphasises the impact of climate change upon natural resources, but makes no mention of the conflict or security implications of this; while the NPPCM emphasises the significance of natural resources in Kenya’s conflict dynamics, but makes no reference to the impact of climate change on this. [...] There are a number of factors, to do with the history, politics and economics of northern Kenya, that make the region vulnerable to conflict, and these factors are described in the background section of the report. [...] The analysis showed that conflicts in the ASALs of northern Kenya are historically rooted in competition over diminishing natural resources, and that these conflicts have intensified with the privatisation of land, the political and economic marginalisation of the region, and the apparent increases in the frequency, length and unpredictability of droughts and floods. [...] This was the basis for the current study, and in particular for locating the issue of natural resource availability – and its management – at the centre of the relationship between climate change and conflict.