Climate Action

Enhancing knowledge, skills and capacity for climate resilience and circularity within communities

Background

  • Garissa, Isiolo, Mandera, Marsabit and Wajir Counties together occupy 183,512.70km², that is 31% of Kenya’s land area. These counties bear the full brunt of climate change – rising temperatures, prolonged drought, flash floods and increasingly erratic rainfall.
  • The majority of drainage systems in North Eastern Kenya (rivers, streams and tributaries) are seasonal/semi-permanent and dry up during the dry season.
  • Communities in North Eastern Kenya are largely agro-pastoralist, totally dependent on their ASAL habitats and extremely vulnerable to climate adversities.
  • KISDAs vision is to tie in environmental rehabilitation, sustainable resource management and the livelihoods of women to ensure they are in vested in climate action efforts in the region.

Take urgent action to combat climate and its impacts

Programs and Activities

Climate Smart Agriculture

This program focuses on building capacity in climate-resilient agriculture within communities in North Eastern Kenya. Its primary objective is to improve food security, self-sufficiency and agri-based livelihoods in Northern ASALs by empowering them to overcome climate extremities (droughts, floods, extreme temperatures and water scarcity) through:

  • Sustainable Land Management practices; include agroforestry, soil conservation and supporting biodiversity.
  • Sustainable Water Management: (See Water Projects)
  • Early Warning Systems: Modelled around the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET), this entails creating community observatories to track food security indicators and alert participating communities and the Foundation of impending gaps/anomalies.

Overall, agricultural climate resilience is essential in ensuring food security and livelihoods for farmers, particularly in vulnerable regions.

Greening the North

Greening the North Project (GTNP) is an initiative to rehabilitate degraded habitats in North Eastern Kenya by creating Regenerative Oases through Reforestation, Water Harvesting/Conversation and Sustainable Forest Livelihoods, to mitigate the impacts of climate change and promote community-driven sustainable environmental management.

GTNP touches on five sustainable development goals which are Zero Hunger (SDG1), No Poverty(SDG2), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG8), Sustainable Communities (SDG11)and Climate Action (SDG14).

GTNP has two main components that are:

  • Restoration of degraded habitats through reforestation using beneficial indigenous trees and terra-based water harvesting & storage infrastructure; and,
  • Community-initiated and community-driven sustainable natural resource management; and
  • Sustainable livelihoods from restored habitats.