South Africa: Climate Change Is Threatening Sheep Farmers in South Africa's Drakensberg - How They're Adapting

In the rugged and mountainous Drakensberg grasslands of South Africa's Eastern Cape province, farmers rear sheep for food, cultural practices and financial security.

The steep slopes, cold winters, frost and seasonal droughts shape everyday farming life. In contrast to commercial farms with large fenced properties and hundreds of animals, families in the area's communal villages typically own small flocks of around 10 to 50 sheep.

The animals are usually kept overnight in simple kraals (enclosures) near family homesteads, to protect them from theft, predators and harsh weather. During the day, they are herded onto communal rangelands, where households share grazing areas.

These communal grazing systems are rooted in local traditions and social arrangements. Farmers rely on natural pastures, seasonal rainfall and indigenous knowledge to manage their flocks.

But this is under pressure from climate change. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall and extreme weather events are changing how livestock farming works in some of South Africa's most climate-sensitive landscapes. The consequences are already visible: reduced pasture availability, more livestock diseases and increasing loss of lambs.

We are a team of researchers working on climate change, livestock systems and rural livelihoods in South Africa. Recently, we set out to understand how smallholder sheep farmers in three villages - Mabua, Tothaneng and Madlangala in the Drakensberg grasslands - experience climate risks and what they are doing to adapt.

We worked directly with 89 smallholder sheep farmers, holding focus group discussions and community meetings. The farmers shared their experiences of droughts, heatwaves, livestock diseases, pasture shortages and changing weather patterns. They also discussed the ways they were adapting to climate change.

We found that climate change was already shaping everyday farming decisions.

Our findings matter because they show that climate change is already threatening livelihoods and food security of vulnerable rural households. To protect farmers and their sheep, government departments, extension services, researchers and development organisations need to strengthen early warning systems and provide veterinary support. They also need to help foster climate-smart grazing practices and fund community-based adaptation programmes.

The sheep farmers we worked with identified drought and heatwaves as the most severe climate hazards. Frost, heavy rainfall, floods, veld fires and storms were also frequently reported. Importantly, these hazards