When Dr Helida Oyieko was working on her doctorate thesis on marine issues in the 1990s in Malindi, the town’s famous landmark 15th century Vasco da Gama’s pillar was a kilometre away during low tide. Now waves have worn away the pillar and it has cracked.

“In my lifetime, I am seeing the effects of climate change,” said Dr Oyieke at the recently concluded National Museums of Kenya (NMK) biannual science conference titled “Museum Research and Climate Change.”

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe, world global temperatures have been steadily rising mainly due to human activities, with harsh consequences.

“When global temperatures rise, the sea level rises, because of ice blocks melting. So when people say that the Vasco da Gama pillar is sinking, that’s not true. It’s the water level rising. That’s our heritage going underwater,” said Dr Oyieke.

For many, climate change is a distant concept that doesn’t affect their daily lives — but there’s increasing evidence that climate change affects everyone. One of the consequences of climate change is global warming.

Global warming and climate change refer to an increase in average global temperatures. Natural events and human activities are believed to be contributing to an increase in average global temperatures. This is caused primarily by increases in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) according to the Climate Change Value Index, are the hardest hit, and hence suffer the greatest loss of biodiversity. Ironically LDCs — mostly African, South American and some Asian countries are not the major polluters — the developed world and emerging economies like China and India are.

However, waiting for developed countries to take action could take a while, so LDCs have to be proactive.

According to the species extinction model, if the rise in global temperature exceeds 3.5 degree centigrade, 40 to 50 per cent of species will be extinct — and these include the elephant, rhino and panda — something that China should note.

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“Since species are disappearing rapidly due to climate change, taxonomy plays an important role in documenting change,” said Dr Mutuku Musili, presenting his paper on the role of taxonomy in climate change and biodiversity. “It’s important that we give a name to all species. That’s the role of taxonomy. Without a name, there’s no identity.”

The issue of identity and biodiversity threatened by climate change isn’t limited to iconic pillars and big wildlife; it includes the basis of human survival — food.

“Medicinal and food plants cater for three basic human interests,” Nyamolo Walter from NMK’s botanic garden said. “Health, income and cultural identity.

“Research shows that 80 per cent of the African population uses traditional medicine. Worldwide, there are up to 70,000 plant species used as medicine. We’re now seeing plant species declining, which calls for in-situ conservation complemented by ex-situ conservation. The Nairobi Botanic Garden champions plant genetic diversity, which calls for sustainable use of plants, advocacy and awareness.”

Unfortunately the worst hit in this gamut of climate change/global warming will be the people living in areas where poverty levels are the highest.

“The poverty index in Tana River Delta is 76.9 per cent in an area that covers 38,437 square kilometres with 240,000 people,” said Domonic Mumbo of Nature Kenya in his presentation entitled “Promoting Ecosystem-based Climate Change Adaptation at Community Level — case study of Tana River Delta.” It’s a fragile ecosystem where water and land are the two most important natural resources, over which the pastoral and fishing communities fight during lean times.

“The poverty level correlates to very low capacity to adapt to climate change. It calls for nature-based enterprises. The Tana Delta flood plain is fertile and can be food sufficient,” said Mumbo. Fortunately, the county is a tourist destination and 7,000 acres have been protected as a Ramsar Site (a wetland of international importance) since September 2012.

“Biodiversity monitoring calls for enhanced management effectiveness and policy management,” said Fred Baraza, the man in charge of monitoring important bird areas at Nature Kenya.

Kenya had suffered from climate change in various ways: Loss of wildlife from prolonged drought, increased human-wildlife conflict due to changes in wildlife migratory patterns, and increased wildfires.

Stella Simiyu, a widely published scientist formerly of the NMK and now with the Ministry of Environment, gave the final presentation entitled “Climate Change and Species Conservation” at the three-day conference.

“From a policy perspective, the status and trend of biodiversity in Kenya is not being addressed effectively,” said Simiyu.

Part of the issue is the changing dynamics of a fast growing human population. From the current Kenya Atlas, Kenya’s population in 1960 was eight million; it is projected to be 60 million by 2030 and 77 million by 2050. In another two years, 50 per cent of Kenyans will be living in urban areas.

“The Kenyan population is unevenly distributed,” Simiyu said. “The densest human population is around the five water towers. Climate change is going to be an increasing issue, affecting everything to do with humans from community to national level.

“The NMK is a premier institution for data. Climate change is going to be more intense in the future and impacts will vary from place to place. We need to know what the trends are going to be in different places to be able to deal with them effectively,” added Simiyu.

“The challenge for researchers and scientists is to generate data that gives robust guidance in policy and decision matters. We have to have a good understanding of what the trends are relating to climate change. Our shortfall is that we do not have data on trends. The government consumes information and knowledge and not data per se.’

The challenge therefore is how to obtain more scientific data on climate change and package it for the government to create policies for conservation.