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In October and November 2023, Lauren Herwehe conducted preliminary dissertation fieldwork in the Sofala and Gaza provinces of Mozambique. This research was undertaken in collaboration with Eduardo Mondlane University and made possible by a Solstice Graduate Research Award from the Geography Department. Herwehe is a PhD student advised by John O’Loughlin, studying how cyclones and other climate change impacts affect rural livelihoods, specifically through causing and exacerbating disputes and cooperation over natural resources.

In the last decade, Mozambique has suffered from Cyclones Kenneth, Idai, and Freddy, several of the most devastating to ever hit the southern hemisphere, as well as a variety of civil unrest, including the onset of armed attacks related to natural resource development in the northern province of Cabo Delgado that have killed thousands and displaced approximately one million. Due to its propensity for cyclones, paired with being one of the world’s poorest nations, Mozambique is considered severely vulnerable to climate change. These factors make research at the intersection of climate change, conflict, and natural resources there timely and relevant to policy and humanitarian efforts.

For this work, Herwehe conducted interviews with 42 farmers, 17 fishermen, and 13 government and humanitarian workers covering questions related to climate change impacts, adaptive behaviors, and disputes and cooperation over agricultural and fishing resources. She compared responses from the Sofala province, which was devastated by Cyclone Idai in 2019 and several subsequent cyclones, with the Gaza province, where cyclones are uncommon. Further facilitating comparative analysis, the northern and central regions of the country where Sofala is located have also historically experienced political and socioeconomic marginalization.

In both provinces, she found that there were many mechanisms linking climate change with disputes between individuals, the government, and multinational corporations over land, fishing, livestock, irrigation water, and disaster aid resources. Relatively few mechanisms were found to link climate change with cooperation. The Sofala province appeared to experience a wider variety of resource disputes related to climate change than Gaza. Herwehe’s dissertation will involve a multimethod approach using remote sensing paired with a survey of farmers and fisherman and this interview data was instrumental in determining what future data will be valuable.

Fishermen in Sengo, Sofala, where interview respondents reported that depleted fish populations following Cyclone Idai caused disputes over nets tangling and fishing areas. Government attempts to alleviate overfishing through longer enforced fishing hiatus periods, which have increased from two months prior to Cyclone Idai to six months at present, have exacerbated these disputes.

Eduardo Mondlane University master’s student and research assistant Aldimiro Carlos translates from the local language of Sena to Portuguese while Herwehe takes notes during an interview with a farmer in Metuchira, Sofala.