Effectiveness of the Autonomous Adaptation Strategies in Thar Desert Pakistan A Case Study of Tharparker District Sindh

Located in the southeast of Pakistan's Sindh province, the district Tharparker is a rain dependant arid area, where over the years droughts have become more frequent and phenomenon. Sometimes it does not rain for years, resulting in severe droughts, which cause further depletion of the already scarce natural resources and increase food insecurity. This study finds out autonomous adaptation strategies used by the local communities in order to live with the climate change. Qualitative and quantitative tools were used to identify those strategies and assess their effectiveness on life of the people. There are approximately 6.5 million livestock heads in Thar desert, completely dependent on the pasturelands. The study finds out that migration is crucial for maintaining subsistence livelihoods and survival of the livestock. In case of no rains, temporary migration to neighboring barrage areas is found as one of the widely used adaptation strategy, other strategies include working on carpet weaving and handicraft making, hunting daily wage in the markets, selling some of the cattle heads to survive drought period. Thus the study overall provides an overview and effectiveness of the autonomous adaptation strategies which people have learnt over the years and are using to deal with climate induced stresses like the droughts and food insecurity.

Keywords:

drought , food insecurity , autonomous adaptation strategies , local communities