Perception and Adaptation to Changes in Climatic Parameters of Semirom Region (Case Study: Qashqaei Nomads)

Undoubtedly, one of the most important and impressionable societies to climate changes are nomadic societies and indigenous knowledge has pervasive roles in range and livestock management. For this purpose, perception and knowledge of the pastoral nomads to climate change were determined in summer rangelands of Semirom. The study population included the nomads of summer rangelands in Semirom. A total of 7700 nomads from different tribes of Qashqaei including Dareshoori, Amale, Shesh bolooki, and Farsimadan use summer rangeland of Semirom. To evaluate the indigenous knowledge and adaptation of nomads to climate changes, several methods were used such as depth and group interviews and questionnaires. The effects of age, sex, education, and range elevation were analyzed using Mann-Whitney test. The nomads believe that changes in temperature, precipitation, and wind are the main signs of climate change, as over 90 percent of nomads believe to precipitation decrease, increasing temperature, and wind speed. The most of the questions are influenced by age, sex, education, and range elevation. The questionnaires refer to adaptations such as delay time of migration, construction of block houses and pools, reducing livestock, feeding livestock with other forage resources etc. Our results showed that nomads of Qashqaei tribes acquired a perception about climate change during living in the nature.