Society and nature in the Lower River Nyando Basin, Kenya
Society-nature relations are regarded as being in crisis; climate change, droughts, floods, environmental degradation have become familiar features in today’s news. While there still is a general belief in our capacity to influence what is going to happen, discussions on society-nature relations are characterised by a growing awareness of uncertainty about the best way to manage the environment. This is to a great extent attributed to the fact that a holistic view on problems is missing, as for a long-time the solution was sought in ever more specialized knowledge. In order to overcome that, interdisciplinary approaches looking at society-nature relations are discussed. The thesis deals with the possibilities of researching and conceptualising society-nature relations in the Lower River Nyando Basin, Kenya with a focus on floods and agriculture. It is comprised of a short theoretical part, after which the subsequent case study deals with the presentation of the socio-ecological setting and the possibility to reach a holistic examination of the socio-ecological dynamics within a certain area. On-going changes are discussed using the terms risk and resilience. In the theoretical part the difficulties of an interdisciplinary approach are addressed by (a) highlighting the starting points of natural science and social science (this involves among others quantitative versus qualitative science and explaining versus understanding) and by (b) looking at terminology and suggesting a more conscious use of vocabulary in order to improve the way we reason about society-nature relations. The terms risk, vulnerability and resilience are used as examples, as they are prevalent in natural and social science. Concerning (a) it is concluded that we need to reflect on the reasons behind labelling something in a specific way and to discuss why a specific representation is used. Furthermore it is argued that the importance of different perspectives should be acknowledged. Concerning (b) it is argued that risk should be seen as pointing to the limits of calculation and the importance of making decisions (this includes realizing situations where no conscious decision takes place). In order to reasonably differentiate vulnerability and resilience, it is suggested that resilience should be seen as allowing a focus on long-term developments, instead of short-term events. The important input those concepts give to the analysis of SNR is to facilitate discussions around decision-making and its background. The empirical part of the thesis concentrates on the presentation of SNR in the Lower River Nyando Basin (LNB) in Kenya. The case study serves as a means to highlight and discuss the problems of studying SNR. The LNB can be seen as an area that is changing rapidly and thereby makes it difficult to make confident decisions. Established resource use strategies and coping mechanisms lose their effectiveness. After presenting an overview of the broad scale changes from a historical perspective in the area (Chapter 5), the study focuses on the different actors and their contribution to SNR. Special attention is given to agricultural changes from a farmer’s point of view. Agriculture is discussed from different angles in Chapter 6. Among others the role of natural rainfall variability, the impacts of the introduction of new seeds, the possibilities of intensification and social aspects such as social cohesion and the attitude towards farming are examined. In the concluding part of this chapter the possibility to identify key drivers that explain the dynamics is addressed, as well as the contribution of the terms risk and resilience for reflecting on them. As flooding is a common event in the study area, a closer look at the role of floods is taken in Chapter 7. It is analysed what kind of measures exist and are used to regulate floods and what the problems of regulation are. The underlying causes of the effects of floods on livelihoods - seen as being attributed to natural variability as well as to social and economic changes - are analysed. It is argued that floods, while often presented as a disaster, have to be understood in the context of long-term socio-ecological variability and change, in order to avoid misguided judgement or action. The dissertation ends with a reflection on the role of the society-nature differentiation, the contribution of risk and resilience to think about variability and change and the possibility to positively influence SNR. As kind of a final thought first suggestions for the development of a common research framework are made.
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