Building climate change resilience for African livestock in sub-Saharan Africa

This study focuses on livestock production systems in Africa, as African livestock owners are thought to be among the most vulnerable populations on earth. Yet, livestock also has potential to strengthen resilience to climate change, as livestock production systems tend to be more resilient than crop based systems. This scoping study is a welcome addition to the climate change adaptation literature as it addresses a dimension frequently ignored in climate change adaptation studies. It explicitly stresses the resilience of livestock production systems to drought and the associated potential to use livestock to adapt to climate change. The study clearly dissects the various aspects of climate change and their impacts on the biological and socio economic aspects of the various African livestock production systems. In doing so, it appropriately stresses the differences between modern industrial systems and pays particular attention to impacts on the various traditional livestock production systems in Africa. The study then reviews traditional coping strategies. It also discusses a number of innovative social, technical and management interventions that might be considered to increase the resilience of livestock production systems to climate change. The final chapter then provides an overview of the steps to be taken to increase the resilience of livestock production systems and livestock dependent livelihoods to climate change.