Villagers prove that climate action narrative can change

Dar es Salaam. While the world on Friday concluded a two-week discussion on interventions to deal with the threat of climate change at COP27 in Egypt, the villagers of Somanga North in Kilwa district, Lindi region are changing their narrative of climate action worth considering.

This is due to the now recognized reality of global climate change that is already causing harm to economic growth, food security, and rural life.

In Kilwa, people are highly dependent on activities that affect the climate for their household food, energy, health and hygiene. Thus, the risk of climate change has proven to be staggering.

After realizing that the sea is approaching their villages, and it was found that there is a village in the neighborhood that has already been swallowed and the fishing has decreased significantly, they quickly decided to find a solution.

As a result, they gathered and discussed using their strength and their traditional understanding to fight the situation, “this step did not require PhD degrees because we knew how the situation has changed over the years and caused a shortage of our staple food (fish).”

“Using our ‘unofficial’ research, we found out that coral reefs have been damaged and some have died completely due to the effects of climate change, we started teaching each other socially how to restore the coral reefs,” says Saidi Chande, 56, one of the villagers.

“We never thought that there were scientific researchers who could investigate the problem scientifically. What we believed was that we could solve our own problems using our own methods,” he added.

Using concrete blocks (which cannot be dissolved in water) as new (artificial) ocean rocks/stones, they began diving and took coral seeds and planted them in small bricks and returned them to the water within seven minutes.

“From our knowledge, we found out that the seeds can die after seven minutes when they are out of the water, so the work of taking them out of the water and planting them on the bricks took no more than seven minutes,” explains Mr Chande in a meeting that brought together researchers, government officials and journalists in Dar es Salaam on Friday.

For his part, the executive secretary of Somanga North village, Mr Simon Simba, said that with their personal efforts, despite a belief that only university researchers have the answers, in the village of not more than 3,000 people, they have been able to solve many problems using their traditional skills.

“To be honest, climate change would make us slaves if we didn’t realize that we have the ability to make corals and mangroves. If we also waited for scientific researchers, we would have been late,” he notes.

Researchers amused

In their mission to learn how coastal communities see climate change and if there were any efforts that the community made to deal with the situation, senior researchers from the Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) were surprised by what they witnessed in Kilwa.

According to the Senior Lecturer on environmental research and climate change, Dr Emilian Mwita, they found that the villagers were already aware of the changes in their village where they could see the fishing going down, the temperature rising, the depth of the sea changing and the huge difference in rainy seasons.

“When we tried to ask them what they are doing to deal with the situation, we realized that this community was already doing more things than we expected,” she said.

Dr Mwita noted that the villagers had formed two groups of 20 members each; one to deal with mangrove restoration and the other on coral reefs. They (villagers) started encouraging each other to join and raise money for the restoration mission.

“So to be honest, as researchers we learnt a lot from their knowledge about the mangroves and coral reefs. This was really a surprise to us,” she reveals. This is when the learned researcher decided to join them with the aim of looking at how they did the activity of restoring fish food.

“We went in the sea together with them and witnessed how they restored, and from there, we asked them what we can do to help and they said they wanted to have more bricks to continue planting the coral reefs and more mangroves by even finding an area where they can preserve the two plants,” she says.

Now, the university researchers and the villagers sat down for a collaborative initiative. “We discussed, they did their action plan which we went through together, invited them to the university, and discussed the options we have, then wrote the proposal for funds and from there we have continued to support them as we learn from them.”

“We want to help them in creating a curriculum which they can use to teach their community members because they have learnt a lot and they are also ready to go out and help others in the nearby villages on how to conserve the environment and restore coral reefs,” Dr Mwita noted further.

According to Dr Almas Mazigo, DUCE researcher and lecturer, for three years now they have been doing research on people, especially fishermen to see the challenges they faced due to climate change.

“The basis of conducting these studies in collaboration with the community, for the community and solving their problems is the direction he came with after getting his PhD training from South Africa and thus making it the direction of his research,” he said.

Participatory research?

Experts have been of the view that to facilitate climate action in a creative way, new forms of collaboration were needed, which will lead to increased transformative potential for individuals, for the economy, and for society as a whole.

“Against this background, community-academic partnerships can serve as an innovative format for collaboration,” Dr Michu Lekule, an environmental researcher from South Africa tells The Citizen in an interview.

However, to ensure that these partnerships develop to their full potential, they must be designed in such a way that all involved can participate effectively, “It’s indeed encouraging to hear that the University of Dar es Salaam is at the front line on this. Researchers must come to now to remember that the society understands the great one who has the answers to their challenges.”

He calls for participatory action research which is a collaborative approach to research, education, and action that brings researchers and participants together to identify, examine, and address problems in community settings.

“The challenges arising from climate change demand far-reaching revision of the modus operandi of research and innovation around countries,” he suggested. “Community-academic/researchers partnerships are seen as a potentially innovative format that needs adoption.”

Experts believe that the key elements to be considered were a focus on the local context, capacity building by all partners, careful treatment of the knowledge of all partners, and a trustful and respectful partnership structure.

“The University of Dar es Salaam, has indeed shown the way to go in our country and this is what donors want to see,” said Dr Amon Mzava, an independent climate change researcher.

Mr Chande, a villager, says that their collaboration with DUCE has helped to improve and get great support to continue their ideas to change the image of their area. “They don’t tell them what to do but we guide them on what to do and their biggest job is to help us with funding.”

Prof Salome Misana, former Principal at DUCE urged the government and other stakeholders to see the need to help the villagers with modern diving equipment to avoid danger in the water.

“We have seen their efforts, they did not wait to have modern equipment, but now they should be assisted with the necessary tools because their technology is important for our nation and the world at the moment,” she said.