Credit: Mariam Abazeri
For millennia, the people of the Western Lut Desert have relied on agriculture and herding. To navigate the arid climate, they have crafted local governing systems and water infrastructure to sustain their livelihoods. However, these innovations are now under growing threat from climatic and political-economic changes, leaving them with limited means to adapt and respond effectively.
KERMANI FARMERS OF THE WESTERN LUT
With a population of 1,700 households spread over 30 villages, the Kermani have long relied on aquifer water to sustain their traditional livelihoods.
Credit: Mariam Abazeri
ACTIVITIES
Agriculture: mainly garlic; sparingly grains, fodder, date fruit, henna, and other vegetables.
Husbandry: Cattle and sheep.
Mixed income activities: Handcrafts and tourism.
TERRITORY AND CLIMATE
Credit: Hamed Zolfaghari
Arid-desert
CLIMATE
Changes in the climate
Steady rise in temperatures for more than two decades.
Higher frequency and longer duration of droughts.
Changes in the onset and duration of seasons: a longer summer, a drier winter.
ACCESS TO NATURAL RESOURCES
Changes in the territory
Aquifers, currently in recession, sustain agriculture and husbandry.
Increased drilling for wells has lowered phreatic levels, reducing water quality and quantity in communal channels.
Tamarisk trees nearby provide windbreak and extra income from resin collection.
Tourist facilities –guest houses and hotels–, bring additional income to residents but also intensify the demand for water extraction.
VOICES OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Kermani farmers have a rich, ancestral understanding of the different ways environmental changes interact with human endeavors like water governance and crop cultivation. Through their experiences, we gain valuable insights into the tangible and sociocultural impacts of climate change.
Drivers of change
The water channels used to bring enough water to irrigate our fields but it’s getting more expensive to maintain them, especially now that they bring less water and have to compete with wells.
Farming now requires tractors, fertilizers, laborers, everything is on credit but our incomes keep lowering.
Lack of coordination amongst ourselves means prices are determined by brokers who keep most of the profits..
There is less dew and moisture in the air and with more heat waves, it’s harder to grow crops.
The youth are leaving to the cities because incomes here are lower than before and there’s less work available.
We used to cultivate many crops like wheat, barley, alfalfa, oranges, cantaloupe, lentils, and henna, but there’s low market value for these crops so now we mostly grow garlic and a few herbs. Raising livestock has also become more expensive and there’s little incentive to herd local species of sheep and cattle.
Credit: Mariam Abazeri
Credit: Hamed Zolfaghari
IMPACTS ON LIVELIHOODS AND CULTURE
Credit: Hamed Zolfaghari
A shift towards profitability
Higher temperatures, less water, and lower market value for staple crops and animal products has reduced herding practices and lowered crop diversity toward more profitable alternatives.
Credit: Mariam Abazeri
Incomes broken free from traditional bounds
As agricultural incomes becomes more precarious, residents have increasingly relied on other livelihood sources such as handcrafting, tourism services, and urban-based labor.
Credit: Mariam Abazeri
A women led water governance
Lower yields from communal water channels has led to more participative interventions enabling women to take on more leadership roles in the community and build greater autonomy.
ENVISIONING A CLIMATE CHANGE-PROOF FUTURE
A short-sighted vision prevents real transformation
More transformative and sustainable responses to environmental changes are ones built on social norms and cultural values that go beyond short-term, market-driven gains.
Women bring at least half of the wisdom
Kermani women have played a critical role in organizing handcrafters and farmers to manage the production and sales of handcrafts and governance of water channels.
Harnessing local and global knowledge to overcome vulnerability
Kermani residents have adjusted to climate change through collective and individual measures influenced by social, economic, and cultural elements. Yet remoteness from financial resources and reliable climatic information leaves them unsure of their vulnerability and the long-term effectiveness.
PUBLIC INVESTMENT DECISIONS COULD BE BETTER INFORMED
To achieve transformative adaptations in arid regions like Kerman we should prioritize both sustainable adaptation strategies and social processes and infrastructures that favor the sharing of traditional ecological knowledge and climate science for contextualized and socio-culturally situated responses. This involves restoring traditional infrastructures, diversifying livelihoods, fostering resilient food systems, and strengthening collective governance structures.
OPENING LOCAL DIALOGUE TO A GLOBAL SCALE
Indeed, by further exchanging information and experiences from outsiders as well as strengthening social processes that encourage participative and community-based dialogue and action, policy makers can identify more effective climate change adaptation measures and increase the likelihood of successful adoption at the grassroots level.
Credit: Hamed Zolfaghari
PUBLICATIONS
2023. “Social and cultural dimensions of reported climate change impacts and adaptations among farming communities in Kerman, Iran” In Reyes-Garcia et al. (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
2022. “A Chronology of Seeing: Subverting Gender Norms through a Long-Term Participatory Video Project with Rural Women in Iran.” Visual Anthropology Review 38(2), 234-254.
2022. “Seeing locally, expressing globally: Participatory filmmaking and aesthetics.” In S. Rust, S. Monani, and S. Cubitt (Eds.) Ecocinema Theory and Practice 2, 228-240. Routledge.
2020. Women of the Sun: A Chronology of Seeing. 83 min. Dir. PV Group of Shafiabad, Iran and H. Zolfaghari.
FIELDWORK CONDUCTED BY
Mariam Abazeri assisted by Hamed Zolfaghari
