IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/264384.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agricultural livelihoods, adaptation, and environmental migration in sub-Saharan drylands: A meta-analytical review

Author

Listed:
  • Hoffmann, Roman
  • Wiederkehr, Charlotte
  • Dimitrova, Anna
  • Hermans, Kathleen

Abstract

Drylands in sub-Saharan Africa are strongly affected by the impacts of climate change. Temperature increases, changes in rainfall patterns, and land degradation pose serious threats to food security, health, and water availability in the region. The increase in livelihood insecurity can in turn trigger migration as a way to adapt or cope with stress. Based on 89 original case studies, this study uses review and meta-analytical techniques to systematically explore the relationship between environmental change, adaptation, and migration in rural areas in sub-Saharan drylands. We show that households use a diverse range of strategies to respond to environmental hardships in different livelihood and ecological contexts. While migration is common in some communities, it is of less relevance to others, and it can take various forms. Our findings indicate that migration is often used as a complementary strategy to other forms of adaptation, which can vary depending on situational needs. We use cluster analysis to identify adaptation clusters and show how linked response strategies differ by socioeconomic conditions. We find that migration can serve as a last resort measure for highly vulnerable groups, or be used in combination with in-situ strategies for diversifying income and adapting agricultural practices. Our results have important implications highlighting the role of local conditions and complementary forms of coping and adaptation for understanding environmental migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Hoffmann, Roman & Wiederkehr, Charlotte & Dimitrova, Anna & Hermans, Kathleen, 2022. "Agricultural livelihoods, adaptation, and environmental migration in sub-Saharan drylands: A meta-analytical review," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(8).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:264384
    DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac7d65
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/264384/1/Hoffmann_2022_Agricultural_livelihoods.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7d65?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kirstin Dow & Frans Berkhout & Benjamin L. Preston & Richard J. T. Klein & Guy Midgley & M. Rebecca Shaw, 2013. "Limits to adaptation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 305-307, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Taylor & Ruth Butterfield & Tiago Capela Lourenço & Adis Dzebo & Henrik Carlsen & Richard J. T. Klein, 2020. "Surveying perceptions and practices of high-end climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 65-87, July.
    2. Schipper, E.L.F. & Tanner, T. & Dube, O.P. & Adams, K.M. & Huq, S., 2020. "The debate: Is global development adapting to climate change?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    3. Maaz Gardezi & J. Gordon Arbuckle, 2019. "Spatially Representing Vulnerability to Extreme Rain Events Using Midwestern Farmers’ Objective and Perceived Attributes of Adaptive Capacity," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 17-34, January.
    4. Julian Ramirez-Villegas & Colin Khoury, 2013. "Reconciling approaches to climate change adaptation for Colombian agriculture," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 575-583, August.
    5. Wiebren Boonstra & Tong Hanh, 2015. "Adaptation to climate change as social–ecological trap: a case study of fishing and aquaculture in the Tam Giang Lagoon, Vietnam," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 1527-1544, December.
    6. Koko Warner & Zinta Zommers & Anita Wreford & Margot Hurlbert & David Viner & Jill Scantlan & Kenna Halsey & Kevin Halsey & Chet Tamang, 2019. "Characteristics of Transformational Adaptation in Climate-Land-Society Interactions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.
    7. Rasmussen, Laura Vang, 2018. "Re-Defining Sahelian ‘Adaptive Agriculture’ when Implemented Locally: Beyond Techno-fix Solutions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 274-282.
    8. Zagaria, Cecilia & Schulp, Catharina J.E. & Malek, Žiga & Verburg, Peter H., 2023. "Potential for land and water management adaptations in Mediterranean croplands under climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    9. Pieter Bloemen & Tim Reeder & Chris Zevenbergen & Jeroen Rijke & Ashley Kingsborough, 2018. "Lessons learned from applying adaptation pathways in flood risk management and challenges for the further development of this approach," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 1083-1108, October.
    10. Lim, Krisha & Wichmann, Bruno & Luckert, Martin, 2021. "Adaptation, spatial effects, and targeting: Evidence from Africa and Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Moleen Monita Nand & Douglas K. Bardsley & Jungho Suh, 2023. "Addressing unavoidable climate change loss and damage: A case study from Fiji’s sugar industry," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Giovanni Bettini & Giovanna Gioli & Romain Felli, 2020. "Clouded skies: How digital technologies could reshape “Loss and Damage” from climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), July.
    13. Petra Tschakert & Jon Barnett & Neville Ellis & Carmen Lawrence & Nancy Tuana & Mark New & Carmen Elrick‐Barr & Ram Pandit & David Pannell, 2017. "Climate change and loss, as if people mattered: values, places, and experiences," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(5), September.
    14. Sam Fankhauser, 2017. "Adaptation to Climate Change," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 209-230, October.
    15. Hochman, Zvi & Horan, Heidi & Reddy, D. Raji & Sreenivas, G. & Tallapragada, Chiranjeevi & Adusumilli, Ravindra & Gaydon, Donald S. & Laing, Alison & Kokic, Philip & Singh, Kamalesh K. & Roth, Christi, 2017. "Smallholder farmers managing climate risk in India: 2. Is it climate-smart?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 61-72.
    16. Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer & Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler, 2015. "Financial instruments for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 85-100, November.
    17. Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi & Ali Bagheri & Nadine Marshall, 2017. "Toward sustainable adaptation to future climate change: insights from vulnerability and resilience approaches analyzing agrarian system of Iran," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-25, February.
    18. Manuel Gottschick, 2015. "How stakeholders handle uncertainty in a local climate adaptation governance network," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 445-457, October.
    19. Benjamin L. Preston & Kirstin Dow & Frans Berkhout, 2013. "The Climate Adaptation Frontier," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-25, March.
    20. Dale Rothman & Patricia Romero-Lankao & Vanessa Schweizer & Beth Bee, 2014. "Challenges to adaptation: a fundamental concept for the shared socio-economic pathways and beyond," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 495-507, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:264384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.