Michael Kuskus
Karamoja province, Uganda
Michael Kuskus is a pastoralist from the Karamoja province in north-eastern Uganda, and the head of the Karamoja Agro-Pastoral Development Programme. His community is already working out ways to adapt to climate change.
Enormous environmental changes have occurred in Karamoja in the past few years. In my childhood, I remember there were lots of forests in Karamoja, and some areas were unreachable because of the thickness of forests. People lived in scattered groups. At no time was there starvation.
'Since 1979 rain patterns have been drastically altered and food production and livestock rearing has been greatly affected as a result.'
Since 1979 rain patterns have been drastically altered and food production and livestock rearing has been greatly affected as a result. Erratic and shorter rains means that the ground remains dry and nothing can grow. Cattle die.
When cattle die the economic livelihood of people is greatly weakened. This leads to cattle rustling and conflicts arise between groups.
Since 2000 we have experienced drought twice. Last year the whole of Karamoja province did not have food. Coping strategies for our people means having to leave our homes and search in the cities and towns for jobs just to get food to survive.
In 1998 we started to ask people to group together to provide them with loans. A good harvest in 1998 meant loans could be used to purchase food stock that could be stored to be used later in periods of drought.
When food is plentiful, we encourage people to sell their livestock (prices of livestock are higher when food is plentiful) to purchase food stock and to save their money. This helps them diversify their resources, which is what we need in times of drought. People need to be able to make profits so that they can sustain themselves in the future.
'Climate change in the future is going to affect Karamoja very badly'
Climate change in the future is going to affect Karamoja very badly. It used to be that we had rain for six months and it was dry for six months. It is now eight months of drought and only four months with rain. And even this rain is spread out and not continuous.
This kind of rain leads to soil erosion, as the ground does not absorb enough water. This makes grass and crops impossible to grow. We are worried that in the next few years the rains will reduce even further, to only one or two months a year.
This is going to have a huge negative impact on us and affect our lifestyle drastically. More people will move away and our communities will be splintered, traditions lost.
How much more of this will we be able to take?