[01] Pascal Tuyishime, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Lay Adventists of Kigali, Kigali, Rwanda. [02] Lamek Nahayo, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Lay Adventists of Kigali, Kigali, Rwanda. [03] Philbert Mugisha, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Lay Adventists of Kigali, Kigali, Rwanda. [04] Jean Damascene Rutagengwa, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Lay Adventists of Kigali, Kigali, Rwanda. [05] Anastase Gahutu Mbabarira, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Lay Adventists of Kigali, Kigali, Rwanda.

The variability of climate mainly rainfall and temperature has over last decades contributed to significant losses among community livelihoods and the poorer are the largely affected. This study aimed to analyze the impact of climate variability on community livelihoods in Gicumbi district, Northern Rwanda. The authors employed secondary data on rainfall and temperature and on community livelihoods which ranged from 2013 to 2019. The Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to map factors of climate variability. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) through its Pearson correlation test indicated the extent to which climate variability impacts on community livelihoods. The results indicated that years of 2013 and 2017 recorded high annual mean rainfall (119.345 and 90.05 mm) and years of 2014 and 2015 registered high annual mean temperature of 24.2 and 24.6 degree Celsius, respectively. This led to landslide, flood, rainstorms, windstorms, lightning and hailstorms occurrence which killed/injured people, damaged houses and cropland, led to livestock loss and destruction of infrastructures. The year 2017 registered a high number of community livelihoods losses (885.7 cases). The correlation analysis indicated that both temperature and rainfall variability has negatively impacted on people’s livelihoods. This was confirmed by a p-value of 0.015171 and -0.071904 for rainfall and temperature variability with livelihood loss, respectively. These values were smaller than 0.05 and confirmed a statistically significant association between climate variability and loss on community livelihoods. The findings of this study can enable policy makers to better understand how changes on rainfall and temperature impact on livelihoods, and the strategic measures which can be adopted to adapt to climate variability.

Climate Variability, Gicumbi District, Livelihoods, Rainfall, Temperature, Rwanda

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