Building a response to Nigeria’s climate change

Although climate change is a global issue, developing countries are suffering the most from all that hot air. Extreme weather patterns such as drought and floods can devastate communities in many tropical countries, impacting farming and making people vulnerable to famine. Increased sea levels could jeopardise the very future of some small island states in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

The problem is that the world’s poorest countries, which must bear the brunt of global warming, have the fewest resources to prevent climate change – and to mitigate the damage.

This unforgiving irony is felt most sharply in Africa. Although it’s the continent least responsible for climate change, it is particularly vulnerable to its effects because of a dependence on rain-fed agriculture, compounded by widespread poverty.

Slowing the rate of global warming – mitigation – is the focus of international negotiations such as the Kyoto Protocol. But even if we reduce greenhouse gases today, climate change and its impact will be with us for decades to come. There is no quick fix. Africa must adapt to the harsh realities of climate change.

If you can’t beat it, adapt to it

Nigeria, home to over 150 million people – 20 per cent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa – spans several ecosystems, from coastal regions to tropical rainforest to the Sahel desert. Like much of Africa, it is vulnerable to global warming.

So in February 2007, CUSO-VSO and Marbek Resource Consultants signed a five-year, CAD$4.75 million agreement with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to help develop a national adaptation strategy for Nigeria. The project is jointly implemented with the Nigeria Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST), based in Ibadan, Nigeria.

The project will increase the capacity of the Nigerian government and civil society stakeholders to take informed, equitable and gender-sensitive action on climate change. The focus is on improved livelihood options, sustainable natural resource use, and governance.

In collaboration with many Nigerian stakeholders, the project team is researching the climate change impacts on the country, identifying possible adaptation actions, and piloting these actions in some of the country’s most vulnerable communities. The project is also developing a comprehensive national strategy for climate change adaptation, and will work with the government to turn ideas into policy. This strategy is being built from the ground up, from scientific sources as well as the experience and knowledge of Nigerians.

Volunteers keep their cool

A number of volunteers are currently supporting the project. One of them is Ellen Woodley, the pilot project advisor. For Ellen, the Nigerian placement is her third overseas posting. Involvement in this project is, she says, “an opportunity to work on the cutting edge of climate change issues and to help vulnerable communities adapt.”

Three years into the initiative, the pilot projects have so far involved five partner organisations in four different eco-zones in Nigeria. “Many communities are involved,” says Woodley, “with locations ranging from the Sahel desert in the north near the Niger border, to the Sudan savannah, from the Guinea savannah to coastal rainforest communities in the south.”

Ellen has visited most of the pilot projects, which feature activities including the production of fuel efficient stoves to reduce wood fuel burning, alternative livelihood options such as beekeeping and snail farming cultivating drought-resistant plans to control erosion, constructing rain water collection tanks, and training on soil and water conservation techniques.

Livelihoods severely affected

One trip to the Sahel desert highlighted why adaptation strategies are needed at the grassroots of climate change. “In the Sahel, communities are being severely affected by desertification,” says Woodley. “Sand dunes are encroaching on the villages of Toshia and Sansan, the two villages that are being assisted by our partner organization based at the University of Maiduguri.”

“Toshia once depended on 13 oases in the area and had livelihoods based on agriculture and livestock grazing.  Now, there are only seven oases left so their livelihoods are under severe threat. Water scarcity and dune encroachment are the two main issues that the community is facing. 

“On the other end of the spectrum, communities in the south are feeling the impacts of irregular rainfall, variation in the timing of rainfall, increased heat, and are seeing reduced crop yields year after year.”

The Building Nigeria's Response to Climate Change project is learning what works and what doesn’t, and will promote these solutions across the country.