Pastoralists under threat continuum: quantifying vulnerabilities of pastoralists to climate variability in southern Ethiopia

Climate variability is emerging as a major threat to Ethiopian pastoralists. Increased vulnerability to climate variability not only wrecked pastoralists' livelihoods but also eroded scarce resource management practices. The objective of this research was to investigate the status of pastoralists' vulnerability to climate variability in the Burkitu watershed in Southern Ethiopia. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) was used in the study to assess household vulnerability to climate variability through direct household surveys. To select 340 sample respondents, multistage sampling techniques were used. Data on socioeconomic and biophysical attributes were collected and combined into indices, from which vulnerability scores for each watershed unit were calculated. There was some variation in the level of vulnerability across watershed units. The outlet had a higher vulnerability score (0.73) due to the pastoralists' higher level of exposure and low adaptive capacity status. The upper watershed unit was identified as having a lower level of vulnerability with a score of (0.19), whereas the middle watershed unit has an intermediate level of vulnerability (0.44). Therefore, any interventions aimed at improving pastoralists' livelihood resilience should concentrate on addressing characteristics that exacerbate households' exposure to climate variability, thereby increasing adaptive capacities.