Adapting to Climate Change through a Paradigm Shift in Rural Development: The Case of Westgate Conservancy in Samburu County, Kenya

Abstract

Climate change poses a plethora of challenges to agro-pastoral production in Africa resulting in different adaptation practices; some household-based, others community-based; many studies focus on the former. This paper focuses on the latter exploring a community adaptation project, the Westgate Conservancy with a view to positioning climate change as an arena of contestations for cultural values and valuations of ecology and landscape. This project is a response to climate change through revaluing a changing landscape to locate new value in wildlife and beauty. The community nurtures and protects the value, marketing it globally for a premium price. This new rural development practice transcends the traditional agro-pastoral modernization paradigm, which climate change halted. This project has enhanced physical security for people, livestock and wildlife, developed tourism and provided social services to the community. This success underscores the view that climate change confronted positively and creatively may be a development opportunity