GBM Blog

Empowering Community Leaders on Climate Change Causes, Effects and Mitigation

April 13, 2017 - 02:55PM
Published by Communications

The Green Belt Movement (GBM) in partnership with International Climate Initiative (IKI) with support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) is implementing a project focused contributing to low carbon development for Kenya in Nandi and Nakuru Counties.

The project aims at empowering communities and institutions by equipping them with the tools and knowledge on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through training workshops, communities will gain knowledge on different mitigation and adaptation strategies as well as capacity building on how to monitor emissions from their households and community level. The County leaders will receive support in developing climate change action plans which they will incorporate in their development agendas.

To date, 60 community leaders, drawn from different locations in each of the two Counties, have been identified and trained. These leaders are expected to further train and empower other community members to initiate climate change adaptation strategies geared towards a transition to low carbon emissions in rural Kenya.

The latest, in a series of these community trainings, was a four-day workshop for representatives from Nakuru County at the GBM Lang’ata Learning Center on March 27 – 30, 2017. The workshop drew 30 community leaders from different locations in Nakuru who were trained on climate change, causes, effects and adaptation and mitigation measures.

The main adaptation measures to be initiated by the community leaders, aimed at coping with the effects of climate change and minimizing carbon emissions include:

  • Tree planting on degraded public sites and on-farm
  • Water harvesting and storage 
  • Initiating food security and planting of indigenous, drought-resistant crops
  • Use of clean, simple and energy-efficient cooking and lighting technologies like solar energy and improved cook stoves
  • Promotion of good soil conservation initiatives to reduce erosion and improve environmental conservation
  • Proper waste handling and disposal techniques to reduce pollution

The training came to a close with pledges by the participants to initiate climate change adaptation and mitigation measures learnt, as well as sensitize other members of the community.

These community trainings aim at nurturing and empowering a society that will implement effective adaptation and mitigation measures as part of its strategy towards transition to low carbon rural emissions.