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. 2024 Oct 30;10(21):e39877.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39877. eCollection 2024 Nov 15.

Assessing the impacts of climate change on high mountain land-based livelihoods: An empirical investigation in District Nagar, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Iftikhar Ali  1   2 , Ashfaq Ahmad Shah  1 , Bader Alhafi Alotaibi  3 , Amjad Ali  2
Affiliations

Assessing the impacts of climate change on high mountain land-based livelihoods: An empirical investigation in District Nagar, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Iftikhar Ali et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Land-based livelihoods in Pakistan's high mountain regions are highly vulnerable to climate change due to the complex interactions between people and their natural environment. This study uses a mixed-method approach to explore how climate change affects land-based livelihoods in the high mountain Nagar District, Pakistan. Data were collected using a structured household survey of 430 randomly selected farmers, supplemented by focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The findings reveal that 87.7 % of farmers have observed negative impacts of climate change, such as increased crop diseases, reduced water for irrigation, and lower crop yields. Bivariate results indicate that factors related to farming practices, such as farming experience and cropping zones, significantly influence farmers' perceptions of impacts. The study emphasizes the urgent need for targeted government intervention and agricultural planning to boost the resilience of farmers in Nagar District. It calls for improved irrigation, crop disease management, and support tailored to high-mountain farming practices. The research highlights the importance of developing adaptation strategies to protect vulnerable farming communities from climate change impacts and supports the need for effective autonomous adaptation measures. This research contributes to a better understanding of climate change impacts on high-mountain agriculture and emphasizes the need to safeguard vulnerable farming communities.

Keywords: Climate change; Gilgit-Baltistan; High mountain; Land-based livelihoods.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual framework.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Study area map Source: Ali et al. [72].
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Flow chart for the analysis of mixed method data.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Respondent's major sources of livelihoods (%).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Farmer's perceived variations in the climate elements (%).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Has climate change affected your land-based livelihoods.?.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Climate change impacts perceived by farmers across three cropping zones (%).
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Climate-induced impacts perceived by farmers (%).
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Severity of the impacts of climate change on land-based livelihoods (%).
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Ranking of the severity of the impacts of climate change.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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