Climate Adaptation Strategies and Environmental Security among Displaced Marakwet Women of Embobut Forest

This study assesses the influence of gender on strategies for adapting climate change among displaced Marakwet women living in the Embobut Forest, Kenya. Past studies have mainly focused on legal and human rights issues related to displacement. Minimal attention has been paid to how Gender shapes, knowledge transfer, adaptation strategies and environmental security in post-displacement settings. Using a feminist political ecology theory and human security theory, this research fills the gap by analyzing the coping strategies of displaced Marakwet women with the climate variability and the new socio-ecological landscapes that they have found themselves in, away from their homeland forest. This study employs a qualitative design through systematic literature review of 83 documents, which are secondary media, grey literature, including government, civil society reports, institutional reports and peer-reviewed articles from journal databases published from 2015 to 2024. In data analysis, Content and thematic analysis methods were used. The results of the research showed that human displacement from Embotut Forests interrupts social and ecological networks of women utilization of natural resource uses, thus exacerbating gender vulnerabilities. Different adaptive mechanisms, rest on the interplay of social relationships and ecological practice among Marakwet women to minimize their vulnerability, with a focus on three areas: livelihood diversification; formation of collective care networks; sustainable land use using traditional knowledge. In addition, Marakwet women have made use of gender responsive and community-based adaptation policies which could promote environmental security and resilience to structural violence. These strategies would positively impact the utilization of indigenous knowledge and wisdom, participation and social justice among displaced Marakwet women.