Dynamics of Culture and Climate Change and their Implications on Livelihoods: Experiences from Rural Zimbabwe

Journal article,That climate is changing is evident in all the regions of the world, and people in those areas have been attempting to reorganize their livelihoods around the changing local contexts. One elusive issue about climate change is that it is producing mixed paradoxes – extremes of drought and dryness in other areas and extreme cold and heat in other areas, among other complex phenomena. As people engage in their livelihoods, their actions and survival strategies are informed by custom, practice and even past experience. As the impacts of climate change start getting acute with the passage of time, people are bound to interpret and respond to them within the confines of their culture, both material and immaterial. This becomes critical when these impacts spread to cause upheaval to the very cultural foundations upon which that society is built and driven. The paper examines the nature of culture’s preparedness to engage the evolving system that evidently calls for new ways of social, political, economic, environmental and ideological organization. One needs to explore the possibility of ‘cultural adaptation’ as climate change unfolds. The views of mainly rural people in Zimbabwe form the basis of issues are captured in this paper. These shed light on how the people affected by climate change are managing to survive in the four Districts of Matobo, Shamva, Chirumanzu and Gwanda. The paper highlights the need to pay attention to religious and cultural experiences, alongside scientific climate change approaches, in informing adaptation. It concludes by noting the potential benefits of cultural diversity in managing climate change in a context largely shaped by the precautionary principle