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The Kruger to Canyons Climate Change team held three workshops and a public information session at the K2C region's 3rd annual Sustainable Living Festival in May 2010.
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The CSIR's Claire Davis addresses stakeholders on the risks and vulnerabilities associated with global change.
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Claire assists participants in the GIS workshop.
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A special climate change handbook, which was produced for north-eastern South Africa, was used for the K2C workshops. The handbook presents future climate change scenarios and possible impacts of these changes in an understandable and accessible manner.
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Feedback from the workshops indicates that climate change is indeed a real concern to many farmers and managers, with concerns ranging from impacts on forestry, bush encroachment, food security and timing of crops to impacts on health.
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Nikki Stevens, Project Manager, Kruger to Canyons Climate Change Initiative
14 January 2011
Climate change is a well publicised phenomenon. Yet despite the fact that climate change is frequently mentioned in the press and in day-to-day discussion, little information is available to the public, on-the-ground managers and decision makers about what changes are actually expected for their area of concern, leaving individuals wondering, "How is climate change going to affect me?"
To address this gap in the communication of scientific information, the Kruger to Canyons Climate Change Initiative was launched by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This initiative is a case study within the South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas, which aims to provide the very latest climate change information to stakeholders within the Kruger to Canyons (K2C) Biosphere region through a series of workshops.
Stakeholder forum
Ultimately the project aims to, over time assist stakeholders in reducing their risk and vulnerability to climate change by creating awareness of the predicted climate changes and the associated impacts. Aimed at encouraging stakeholders to consider how climate change will impact their day-to-day lives, the workshops create a forum where stakeholders can start considering future management actions to reduce their risk to climate change. Stakeholders also begin to understand what adaptations they are able to make and what adaptations require provincial and national support. Through this forum they are able to voice their requirements that will ultimately need to be addressed at a national level.
The CSIR's Kruger to Canyons Climate Change team held three workshops and a public information session at Hoedspruit in May 2010. The team's stakeholder engagement was vastly assisted by the endeavours of our partners, the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere committee who allowed us to kick off the first of a series of workshops at the opening of the region's 3rd annual Sustainable Living Festival.
Sixty-five participants attended the workshops over two days, representing the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the commercial forestry industry, private nature reserves, municipalities, the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) and the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA).
The latest climate change predictions were released to the stakeholders and those with GIS experience were invited to attend a GIS workshop where the methods in using the raw information were explained in detail.
Climate change is a real concern
Feedback from these workshops indicates that climate change is indeed a real concern to many farmers and managers, with concerns ranging from impacts on forestry, bush encroachment, food security and timing of crops to impacts on health. Stakeholders are prepared to plan management strategies around the current predictions, but most require the scientific community to develop predictions further before basing their day-to-day management on this information. The conservation sector, however is leading the way in using the latest predictions to begin planning future reserve expansion strategies.
These series of workshops were an initial step in creating awareness of the potential climatic changes that stakeholders in the area will face. The workshops were a great success. Stakeholders were active and engaging and their enthusiastic participation will go a long way to defining future research and scientific effort in this important field.
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