Social Implications of Climate Change Adaptation Management in Awoja Watershed in Eastern Uganda

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the institutional implications of adaptation to climate change from a social perspective. It particularly analyses the relationships between social institutions and watershed management in a changing climate. The paper notes that while social factor variables influenced changes in management strategies, adaptation management had led to erosions of the traditional social fabric thereby negatively affecting the social end ecological sustainability. The study finds that even where institutions are strong, power inequalities, gender issues, and resource users' diverse interests occur. Thus, the interactions between traditional social institutions and formal natural resource management institutions do not only promote collective action, but also reproduced conflict and worsened social division and marginalization.