Assessment of traditional knowledge in use as early warning system on community adaptation to dry spells in Bolero Malawi

Abstract

Malawi is faced with various climatic changes. Climate change adaptation and vulnerability assessments have shown that communities in Malawi are highly vulnerable to different climate risks including flooding, shorter rain periods, dry spells, and unpredictable onset of rainfall, drought, strong winds and hail storm. Efforts have been made to combat this but however; people are still facing challenges associated with changes in climate. There has been proof that Traditional Knowledge has helped in many areas in solving climate change problems, however Malawi as a country has emphasised much on scientific early warning systems and these scientific early warning systems are not also effective nor are they used on the ground. Local people in Malawi have their own ways and means of predicting the occurrences of disasters in relation to climate change. This research therefore aimed at assessing the use of traditional early warning systems as an adaptation to dry spells in Bolero, Malawi. To achieve the above purpose, the following were the three major objectives; to interrogate the existence of traditional early warning systems in Bolero, to explore the use of the traditional early warning systems in Bolero and to assess the role of the government in promotion of the use of traditional early warning systems. The research used focus group discussions, Key informant interview, and document review. The research hypothesis was that there are some traditional early warning systems in the communities which are currently being used but are not well supported by the government. The major findings were that, there are currently traditional early warning systems in the area but these are not documented and neither are they supported by government except in only five villages where Action AID in partnership with the government of Malawi is implementing its project. The research also found that scientific early warning systems are also not very accessible to the people of Bolero. The research recommends that the knowledge of local people be supported to bring about change where the communities are empowered to combine their knowledge with scientific knowledge in preparing for disasters associated with changes in climate.