Determinants of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies: An Application of Protection Motivation Theory in Konta District, South Western Ethiopia

Regasa Dereje Tesema and Akirso Nega Abera
Additional contact information
Regasa Dereje Tesema: Department of Sociology, Jimma University, Ethiopia
Akirso Nega Abera: Department of Sociology, Jimma University, Ethiopia

European Review of Applied Sociology, 2019, vol. 12, issue 19, 49-73

Abstract: Climate change becomes a widely acknowledged and inevitable global challenge of 21st century. For developing countries like Ethiopia, it intensifies existing challenges of ensuring sustainable development. This study examined factors affecting climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies by taking in Protection Motivation Theory. The study draws on mixed research approach in order to assess the subjective understanding about climate change threats and identify the factors determining responses to climate change. While qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and interviews, quantitative information was collected using semi structured survey from 296 randomly selected farmers from different agro-ecologies. Qualitative data was dominantly analyzed using content analysis while descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze quantitative data. Almost all respondents (97%) perceived that climate change is occurring and threatening their wellbeing. Dwindling precipitation, increasing temperature and occurrence of human and animal disease were perceived to represent climate change. From nationally initiated strategies, farmers were found to largely practice soil and water conservation and agricultural intensification, which they perceived less costly and compatible to their level of expertise. The result of binary logistic regression revealed that perceived severity of climate change, perceived susceptibility to climate change threat, perceived own ability to respond, response efficacy and cost of practices predicted farmers motivation to practice climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Thus, building resilient system should go beyond sensitizing climate response mechanisms. Rural development and climate change adaptation policies should focus on human capital development and economic empowerment which would enable farmers pursue context specific adaptation and mitigation strategies thereby maintain sustainable livelihood.

Keywords: adaptation; belief; climate change; efficacy; mitigation; severity; vulnerability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/eras-2019-0010 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:erapso:v:12:y:2019:i:19:p:49-73:n:5

DOI: 10.1515/eras-2019-0010

Access Statistics for this article

European Review of Applied Sociology is currently edited by Ciprian Panzaru

More articles in European Review of Applied Sociology from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().