Burundi’s fishers and farmers adapt to climate crisis

It was a late evening in April 2018 when Philbert Ntaciyica, exhausted from the non-stop heavy rain battering his roof, wondered if his farm would survive this latest storm.

When the 12-hour downpour finally eased in Nzove, a village perched on a hillside in north-eastern Burundi, Ntaciyica emerged from his home to find no crops or topsoil. All had been washed downhill by the deluge, and along with them, his livelihood. 

“We had nothing left,” said Ntaciyica. “We were forced to sell our livestock. Our children couldn’t eat well. They went from two meals a day to one.”

Along with most other men in the village, the father-of-six was forced to leave his wife and young children behind and travel to neighbouring Rwanda for work.

The storm that ravaged Ntaciyica's village is part of a wave of extreme weather that has struck Burundi in recent years, a product of climate change, scientists say. Although the nation releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions per capita than almost any other country on Earth, it bears a disproportionately heavy burden from the climate crisis.

Adapting to the climate crisis

The situation is only set to deteriorate. Temperatures are expected to rise between 1.5 -2.5°C in the country by 2050, while rainfall patterns are projected to become more extreme, leading to protracted dry seasons, more flooding and increased erosion. This will put a mounting strain on agriculture, food security and access to safe water across the country.

In the years to come, Burundi, like much of Africa, will face the monumental challenge of adapting to these changes. Countries will need solutions, like developing drought-resilient agriculture, building seawalls to protect coastal cities, improving water security to withstand droughts, and a whole lot more. Recent studies have predicted African countries on average, may have to spend up to five times more on climate adaptation than they do on healthcare.

Yet the gap in financing for adaptation is both stark and widening. The estimated adaptation costs in the developing world are five to 10 times greater than the finance currently provided.

Nature-based solutions

A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) project funded by the Adaptation Fund is helping Ntaciyica and 2,000 farmers like him adopt nature-based solutions to adapt to less predictable weather in Burundi.

In partnership with Burundi’s Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, the project, called the Adapting to Climate Change in the Lake Victoria Basin initiative, has provided funding and training for farming cooperatives to plant 230,000 trees, including avocado and grevillea, to help prevent soil erosion. Not only do the trees absorb carbon, their roots keep the soil in place and their leaves provide shade from the equatorial sun, slowing evaporation and locking moisture in the soil.

In this region, farmers tend to till the soil vertically along the slope, which makes the topsoil even more susceptible to erosion from increasingly extreme rainfall. To stop soil from sliding down the hillside, the project is helping farmers to construct terraces along the contours of 240 hectares of farmland and subsequently stabilizing the terraces by planting elephant grass along their fringes.

The good news for Ntaciyica is that heavy rains no longer wash away his best soil. His harvests of beans and cassava have increased, his goats have extra food from the elephant grass and he has more money to invest in his children’s education.

“The contours help us to prevent soil erosion and landslides,” he said, gazing up the hill at his farm. “Because the water remains in those contours, it keeps the land moist and we get better harvests. Where we used to harvest one sack, now we get two.”

Having seen the positive results, Ntaciyica’s neighbours are now constructing their own terraces lined with soil-binding grasses.

Food insecurity

Further downhill, Lake Rweru fisher Ezechiel Bizimana blames increased erosion and landslides upstream on declining fish stocks. He has seen his catch gradually fall over his lifetime and says that the lake has already lost three species of fish. Climate change is making things worse, he says, as reduced rainfall has lowered the water level in the lake.

“I started fishing when I was 10 years old,” Bizimana recalls. “We used to get 50kg a day, but now we rarely get more than 25kg.”

Nutrient-rich soil particles carried by floods from deforested upland areas can upset lake ecosystems, lowering the oxygen level in the water. The silt also clogs fish gills and spoils spawning grounds. In parts of the lake near where the terraces have been constructed, Bizimana said he has observed an improvement in water quality, hinting at a potential reversal in fortunes for the depleted fish stocks.

Like the farmers, Bizimana and around 30 other fishers have received support from the project. They are among some of the first in East Africa to try out a new fish-drying kiln constructed by the project, which creates a better-tasting, longer-lasting smoked fish.

Not only does less fish go to waste but the end product can fetch a 50 per cent mark-up at the market. Crucially, the dryer uses almost 97 per cent less firewood than traditional smokers, reducing deforestation and providing further protection for the lake’s ecosystem.

A regional push for adaptation

As Ntaciyica’s and Bizimana’s experiences show, protecting and harnessing nature upstream pays dividends for people downstream. In all, the livelihoods of 45 million people across Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya rely on the natural resources of the Lake Victoria Basin, which climate change is putting under ever-greater pressure.

The UNEP-supported project in Nzove is building the capacity of the five governments to establish a regional framework to guide adaptation actions and provide a platform for countries to share best practices. Regional policy frameworks, informed by experiences on the ground, are vital for adapting to transboundary climate impacts, say those involved.

“The project is demonstrating how small steps taken on the ground, underpinned by a coherent adaptation strategy, can significantly enhance people’s lives and livelihoods,” says Jessica Troni, Head of UNEP’s Climate Change Adaptation Unit.

“Scaling-up such initiatives across the five countries that rely on the Lake Victoria Basin ecosystem has the potential to help millions of farmers and fishermen become more resilient to climate change.”