Abstract:
Despite decades of research regarding the impact of the Participatory Forest Management
approach on socio-economic changes to communities as well as reduction of
environmental degradation, the role of local institutions such as Village Resource
Management Committees on the adaptive capacity to climate change variability of forest
dependent communities has largely gone unexplored. There has been a dearth of research
on understanding the role local institutions such as Village Resource Management
Committees play on the adaptation capabilities to climate change variability of forest
dependent communities in Zambia. The main objective of this study was to investigate the
effectiveness of Village Resource Management Committees (VRMCs) in enhancing the
adaptive capacities to climate change variability of communities surrounding Ndondi
forest reserve in Choma District of southern province in Zambia. A combination of
primary qualitative and quantitative data, in addition to secondary data, was used in the
study. The results show that the community has a relative adaptive capacity to climate
change variability due the availability of options for income generation. The results have
also revealed that the majority of the respondents are aware of the shift in the starting and
finishing times of the rainy season for the past ten years. The study results have also shown
that for the majority of the respondents, climate change variability has resulted in the
overall increase in food production. The study has also revealed that the majority of
households are food secure for only seven months per year.
