Climate Change Adaptation in Africa

Soil erosion resulting from erratic and erosive rainfall, steep terrain, deforestation, inappropriate land use, land fragmentation, overgrazing and farmers’ management practices is one of the major challenges in agricultural production in many parts of Ethiopia. Climate change aggravates this problem. A number of soil and water conservation methods were promoted to combat soil erosion but adoption of these practices remains below expectations. Thus, this paper explored major soil and water conservation measures smallholder farmers used as adaptation strategies in response to climate change. A special emphasis was given to investigate determinants of farmers’ adoption of stone bund to combat soil erosion caused by climate change and variability. The common climate adaptation strategies to mitigate the effect of flooding among the farmers in Kuyu district were stone bud (49%), soil bund (24%), check dam (17%), and hillside terracing (10%). The result revealed that farm size, family size, education, perception of soil erosion problem, slope of the plot, and training on soil and water conservation are found to be positively and significantly influenced farmers’ decision to invest in stone bund. Moreover, it also came to light that age of the household head, number of livestock, and distance of the plot had negative and significant effect on adoption of introduced stone bunds. This result suggests that there is the need for increased knowledge on soil and water conservation measures and educational orientation for technical know-how. The study further suggests strengthening agricultural extension services to make farmers more informed and knowledgeable about climate change impact on soil erosion and the adaptation strategies to use. Moreover, this study suggests that conservation efforts should target steep slopes where farmers think soil erosion problem is high.

The Nigerian agricultural production system is predominantly rain-fed. Over reliance of the agricultural production system on rainfall is an indication of vulnerability to climate change and variability of rainfall. On the other hand, climate resilience agriculture could ensure sustainable agricultural production and food security (including, availability, access, and stability) for Nigeria, being the most populous and largest economy in Africa. We therefore, investigated the impact of both rainfall variability and irrigation on agricultural production with a view to informing appropriate agricultural policy for adapting to climate change in Nigeria. Time series data spanning 43 years were used for the analyses on degree of variability and impact. The generalized methods of moment (GMM) econometric analytical technique was employed to quantify the impact of rainfall (in millilitres per annual) and irrigation (in proportion of arable land) on aggregate agricultural production index. We found evidence for the impact of irrigation as a tool for adapting to climate change, and for promoting climate-resilient agriculture in Nigeria. Irrigation had positive and significant impact on aggregate agricultural production. The findings suggest the need for the minimization of the impact of climate-induced agricultural production risks through climate- resilient agriculture which would involve expansion of arable land area under irrigation.

Understanding climate variability and its change over Africa is an issue of increasingly importance. The society and its economy are strongly dependent on agriculture where substantial proportion of this agriculture is rain-fed. To address this issue, climatological analysis was carried out based on observed climatological data from gauges. The study provides climate information in space and time for climate change impact assessments. The degree of variability is measured based on the temporal trend using a linear regression model at 95% significance level. To be confident enough, the spatial climatological features from gauge are compared with CRU climatologies which is in good agreement. Some differences between CRU and gauge datasets are observed that might be related to the coarse resolution of CRU to capture the fine scale climatological patterns. Results show that statistically significant maximum temperature increasing trends are detected during summer (JJAS) and spring (FMAM) seasons in the range between 0.1 and 0.01 °C season−1. In the case of rainfall, it has been observed that statistically significant decreasing trend at a smaller rate over larger area especially for JJAS. The weak down-trend in rainfall and fast up/down-trend in temperature require impact modeling for optimizing management options of crop and hydrological resources over Ethiopia.

Agriculture, especially as practiced by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Expanding farmers’ adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices not only reduces risk from climate change events but also contributes to enhanced productivity and hence enables sustained investment in adaptation technologies. This paper is based on analysis of data collected from 734 randomly selected farm household heads and field observations. The paper first employs Heckman sample selection model to analyze the two-step process of adaptation to climate change (perception and response). Then it employs nearest-neighbor matching techniques to measures the impact of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices. The results reveal that farmers’ decision to use the practices is influenced by agro-ecology, specifically physical, natural and social factors. The results also suggested that households that adopted the practices experienced higher productivity by 22.2% over non-users implying that climate related risks that lead to yield variability are significantly reduced. Climate smart agriculture practices are knowledge-intensive. Therefore, scaling up these adaptation benefits of climate-smart agricultural practices requires public investment to raise awareness and provide technological support.

Developing and communicating knowledge about what will be sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions and stimulating planning processes that can generate more debate about what values and interests are really wanted to be promoted is vital in sustainable urban development planning. Adaptation to climate change refers to the process through which building adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable people is focused and exposure or sensitivity to climate impacts is reduced. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation refers to the process of integrating considerations of climate change adaptation into policy-making, budgeting, implementation and monitoring processes at national, sector and sub-national/regional levels. The purpose of the study was to assess the needs for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into urban land use planning and management and propose strategic actions for mainstreaming in Ambo town. Urban flooding, water stress/water shortage, urban heat island effect/increased urban heat, wind storms, and dust storms were identified as climate change related disaster risks in Ambo town. While it is commendable to appreciate the good start of urban greening and beautification by Ambo town administration and its municipality, the town administration has to take strategic actions of mainstreaming climate change adaptation into urban land use planning and management to promote sustainable urban development in the town and its surroundings.

It has been estimated that there are 50–100 million nomads and semi-nomads in the developing world, over 60% living in Africa. In Ethiopia, pastoral land covers about 60% of the total land area with an estimation of 8 million pastoralists. Nomads have the least access to the healthcare delivery system, due to their traditional lifestyles entailing seasonal movements and spread settlement patterns. Moreover being also strongly affected by extreme weather conditions, nomadic pastoralists enact different strategies aimed at maintaining the health status of their household groups. The main purpose of this research was to identify and analyse pastoralists’ needs, perceptions and behaviours towards human and animal health, in relation to the local socio-ecological context. A special attention was given to the strategies of adaptation to the environment also in relation to climate change. In the last years, developments in remote sensing technologies, cartographic services and GPS applications have enabled the creation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capable to integrate spatial data with climatological products. This paper presents a methodology to collect and integrate environmental and social data to strengthen the monitoring capacity of stakeholders working close to the nomadic community in Filtu Woreda, Ethiopia. Data collected in the field (e.g. human and animal health services, water sources, precipitation) using mobile and portable devices are integrated with satellite data into a GIS, to enable stakeholders to generate an effective database for the analysis of pastoralists and livestock health behaviours, according to seasonal movements and to climatological variations.

Despite global concerns and negotiations on climate change, for poor rural people living in the tropics and sub-tropics, the phenomenon of climate change is not new. Experience shows that in northern Nigeria, rural people and their communities have over long periods of time built indigenous strategies, coping mechanisms and best practices which have enabled them adapt to climate change threats. However, the scientific, economic and social potentials associated with their mitigation and adaptive strategies have not been adequately unraveled or recognized in Nigeria’s climate change policy formulation and implementation. The crisis of climate change calls for an urgent response from all stakeholders within the national and international domains towards the possibility of creating conditions that permits equitable and environmentally sustainable development. Thus, this paper shares experiences derived from the analysis of indigenous best practices employed by irrigation farmers in coping with the adverse effects of climate change in two agro-ecological zones of Katsina State in northern Nigeria. The focal aim is to highlight the valuable lessons, provoke critical thinking and give insights into the contributions rural people have to offer in addressing the context-specific issues of climate change.

Implementation of appropriate climate change adaptation strategies is contingent on a good understanding of climate variability. Efforts to adapt to climate change impacts in East African societies have flourished. However, an area of research which has been neglected and could enhance adaptive capacity is bimonthly global-scale climate analysis in relationship to the long rains, during the climatologically prominent phase of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Empirical analyses were carried out using nearly 60 years of standardized gridded rainfall, horizontal wind and sea surface temperature (SST) data, to gain predictive understanding of the region’s climate. This study has delineated SST and divergent circulation features related to three of the four rainfall modes. The modes responded differently to the Pacific ENSO, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, there was no clear relationship between the second mode and the global SST distributions. Having substantiated this with monthly and seasonal-scale SST analyses, it suggested that this atypical pattern warranted numerical modeling studies or should be verified using other high resolution datasets. The SST predictor features identified may be used to enhance operational seasonal climate prediction scheme. In this way, end users would be better prepared to select appropriate climate change adaption options.

Agriculture development in North Sinai region is one of the most strategic projects for agriculture extension in Egypt; aiming to create new communities along the region. Farming community in the region is largely composed of traditional small-scale farmers; facing many challenges, e.g. drought and salinity in water and soils and lack of education and agriculture management skills. The paper presents a case study as a success story for improvement of livelihood and productivity of poor farmers under marginal (particularly saline soils and water) resources. A five-year project was implemented in the region; identified the barriers to diversification of the farming system and scaling out. The project approaches and activities were effective in lowering these barriers. It was highly successful in developing more resilient agricultural production systems in an integrated comprehensive approach that helped the participant poor farmers in marginal environments achieving better management of their farm resources along the value chain and attain high production and income. The results of the main activities are presented in the full text paper. The outcomes have been endorsed and adopted by farmers and agricultural authorities. It is important to replicate this model in similar marginal regions in Egypt or somewhere else to scale-up and disseminate high yielding forage/livestock production packages better adapted to the marginal environmental conditions.

Forests and trees outside forests play an important role on mitigation of climate change through sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere. However, little has been documented on the role of forestry in adaptation to climate change. The objective of this paper was therefore to identify and analyse forest-based adaptation strategies employed in sub-Saharan Africa that have the potential of enhancing resilience of vulnerable communities to the impacts of climate change, with a view of recommending them for up-scale and adoption. The study employed both desk review approach and primary data collection through focused group discussion from 12 African countries. A review of selected studies commissioned by African forest Forum in sub-Saharan Africa was undertaken and synthesis carried out to delineate role of forestry in improving resilience to climate change to various forest ecosystems and people. It also builds from review of related reports and other publications on forestry as relates to climate change. The study revealed forest and tree-based systems in the context of sustainable forest management plays a significant role on disaster risk reduction and abatement to impacts of climate change. Specifically, tree planting and forest conservation aid protection of soil and land against detrimental impacts of flooding. Rehabilitation of degraded lands and forests through tree planting and good forest management practices enhances water quality and other vital environmental services. Such benefits associated with forests and tree-based systems improve capacity of communities in upstream and downstream to ameliorate impacts of climate change. Overall, the adaptation strategies such as: sustainable forest management (SFM); agroforestry systems; forestry and food production; commercial forestry; and other ecosystem based interventions enhance resilience among the vulnerable communities in the sub-Saharan Africa. The development of appropriate institutions, policy and legal frameworks that support national initiatives such as National Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs), forest based Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) as well as NDCs and other coping mechanisms that integrate both adaptation and mitigation remains vital in strengthening resilience of vulnerable social groups and biophysical systems to the impacts of climate change.

Climate change and variability are the main drivers of several infectious and non-infectious diseases that are of great public health importance in Ethiopia. Malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, meningitis, leishmaniosis, and different forms of diarrheal diseases are the most common climate sensitive diseases. The Health Vulnerability Index (HVI) assessment is adopted from Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI-IPCC). It considers the three IPCC contributing factors to vulnerability: exposure, adaptive capacity, and sensitivity as major factors along the nine profiles/determinants using secondary data from published documents. The values for the exposure levels ranged from 0.12 to 0.69 and grouped the regions into moderately exposed and highly exposed regions to climate change. All regions are found highly sensitive to climate change induced diseases with the exception of Addis Ababa. Adaptive capacity measured in terms of several socio-economic factors such as finance, infrastructure, available health professionals and social determinants of health reveals variation between regions characterized as urban and the rest. HVI values range from less vulnerable (−0.247) to highly vulnerable (0.279). The analysis categorized regions into relatively least vulnerable (0.6%), moderately vulnerable (49.95%), highly vulnerable (10.35%) and very high vulnerable (39.5%) of the total land mass. Health adaptation strategies recommended include improved public health surveillance systems; establishing health and climate data management system; strengthening early warning systems; improved public health services; improved water, sanitation, and hygiene system; human resource development; enhanced public awareness and attitudes; targeted intervention to regional contexts by enhanced financial resources.

Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is predominantly rain-fed, and erratic weather patterns and extreme weather events, exacerbated by the changing climate, adds to the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in producing enough food to feed the ever growing population of the region. While the farming communities are responding to these challenges, there is an intensive need for scaling-up adoption of appropriate interventions that can help increase crop yields and resilience to climate change. A review and analysis of potential climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAs) in SSA indicate that some CSAs are increasingly adopted by farmers and show potential for scaling up. Some particularly promising CSAs include drought tolerant (DT) maize varieties and sustainable intensification through crop associations which are increasingly adopted across SSA regions. Other CSA’s which also offer promise include water harvesting and small-scale irrigation, climate information, and natural resource conservation. The presence of successful smallholder CSA practices in SSA means that opportunities exist for cross-country learning and scaling up by supporting farmers’ efforts through exchange of knowledge, incentives and policies.

This study analyzed the dimensions of Ecosystem Services (ES) in the adaptation projects. We examined the Ecosystem Based Adaptation (EbA) concept based on thirty one sample projects from Burkina Faso and Mali. Results showed that 49% of the adaptation projects were within the agricultural sector, with generally low budgetary consideration and medium-term implementation duration. The projects mainly aimed to provide regulation and provisioning ES. Explicit EbA strategies were present in 16% of the studied projects, implying a limited consideration of ES in adaptation projects. The projects were largely sectoral with minimal integrated adaptation approaches. The study concludes that more considerations should be taken on community-based needs using natural assets for responding to climate change impacts. It recommends more inclusion of EbA concepts in the national adaptation policies, integration of local, indigenous and scientific knowledge to adaptation, and increased research on the EbA concept to support adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Rainfall variability and increased temperature over recent years have resulted in increased vulnerability in an already fragile Ethiopian environment. The pattern of rainfall is experiencing both long term change and short term fluctuations and this is seen as a significant threat to Ethiopia’s growth and transformation. Climate change is prompting re-evaluation of existing strategies and the development of flexible models that allow programs to respond to the real and changing needs of rural populations. In carrying out local stakeholder analysis, CARE applies participatory values, processes and methods, to enable communities to articulate and enhance their own knowledge and understanding, and to plan actions accordingly. The Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA) methodology helps communities and facilitating organizations to understand the implications of climate change for lives and livelihoods. By combining local knowledge with scientific data, the process builds people’s understanding about climate risks and sustainable adaptation strategies. It provides a framework for dialogue within communities, as well as between communities and other stakeholders. Recognizing that local actors must drive their own development, CVCA prioritizes local knowledge on climate risks and adaptation strategies in the data gathering and response planning process. The CVCA methodology in Ethiopia has been used and adapted to increase understanding among stakeholders, gather and analyze information to design climate change adaptation initiatives, and integrate climate change adaptation issues into livelihoods and natural resource management programs. This paper discusses CARE Ethiopia’s experience of promoting Climate Change Adaptation through building communities’ and partners’ capacity using a range of approaches and more specifically CVCA.

The effects of climate change on the incidence and severity of diseases on some agricultural crops in Nigeria between 2010 and 2014 were studied. The objective of the study was to assess the climatic dynamics on the incidence and severity of plant diseases for climate prediction purposes in Nigeria. Climatic data were collected from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Ilorin and literatures were perused to assess the incidence and severity of pathogens of agricultural crops. The results showed that in 2010 through 2014, average temperature varied from 16.6–7.7 °C; average cloud ranged from 4.0–7.1 okta; average relative humidity ranged from 48–90%; average rainfall ranged from 0.0–511.7 mm and average sunlight intensity ranged from 2.99–8.73 h. The results of the incidence and severity of crop disease pathogenic organisms revealed that in 2010, nematode prevalence ranged between 1.02–6.07% (yam tuber gall); 21.73–82.53% (root gall nematode) in 2012; 8.4% (tuber gall), 25.68% (dry rot) in 2014. The incidence and severity of fungi diseases ranged from 15.7–30.0% (powdery mildew) in 2010; 7.35% (leaf rot) in 2011; 37.33–48.0% (anthracnose) in 2012; 1.7–26.7% (anthracnose) in 2013. The incidence and severity of bacteria diseases ranged from 10.0–45.58% (bacteria disease on potato) in 2010; 16.7–31.3% (leaf spot on okra); 10.0–33.3% (leaf spot on Eggplant); 21.3% (bacteria wilt on okra) in 2013. The incidence and severity of virus disease ranged from 10.0–44.5% (potato virus) in 2010; 43.0–79.0% (virus disease) in 2011; 40–100% (maize streak) in 2013; 16.0–97.0% (virus disease) in 2014. Favorable climate conditions enhanced disease development, resulting to higher disease incidence and severity; and vice versa.

Smallholder agricultural ecosystems are threatened by climate change. Based on available evidence, of all the climate change outcomes, southern Africa is one of the regions worst affected by climate change. Adaptation to climate change involves changes in agricultural management practices in response to changes in climate conditions. It often involves a combination of various individual responses at the farm-level and assumes that farmers have access to alternative practices and technologies. This review examines farmer adaptation strategies to climate change in southern Africa based on a cross-section database of three countries (South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe). We review the state of knowledge of agricultural vulnerability and responses to predicted climate change and consider adaptation options. The review describes farmer perceptions to changes in long-term temperature and precipitation as well as various farm-level adaptation measures and barriers to adaptation at the farm household level. It also reviews smallholder farmer constraints to autonomous adaptation and implications on adaptation policies. More research is needed on local level assessment methods and standard indicators of change in response to effects from climate change, while regional monitoring networks are needed to observe these responses to enable educated adaptation. Adaptation measures can offset anticipated agricultural losses, reduce vulnerability and improve resilience to climate change.

Projections suggest that there are considerable changes in climate in Ethiopia. The rate of change will increase in the future with variations across different agro-ecological-zones. These poses challenges to policy makers to devise climate resilient development strategies, as exposure and adaptive capacity differ among society located even within common cultural and administrative units. The study assesses the livelihoods vulnerability of smallholder’s farmers in the Didessa basin applying the Livelihood Vulnerability Index framed within the LVI-IPCC vulnerability framework through cross-sectional household survey conducted on 450 households in the basin complemented with secondary data of rain fall and temperature. For each agro ecological zones, LVI index and LVI-IPCC vulnerability score was calculated. The result shows that, each of these metrics varied systematically where the lowland agro ecological zone is the most exposed zone, the highland is the most sensitive zone and the midland is the most in adaptive capacity to climate variability and change. The overall LVI-IPCC scores indicate that lowland households may be more vulnerable than highland and midland households (0.067 versus −0.012, −0.013, respectively). Overall; the lowland is the most vulnerable followed by highland Agro-ecology. The findings of the study will have policy relevance in identifying source and forms of vulnerability for better design of agro-ecological specific adaptation measure there by strengthen most vulnerable sectors. The study recommends that increasing adaptive capacity to climate variability and change to the range of climate extremes that they experience (drought, floods wheatear related shocks). The study also recommends the flexible application of LVI-IPCC as tools for the climate related analysis and impact assessment by substituting the value of the indicator that is expected to change and recalculating the overall vulnerability index. The study LVI might be used to project future vulnerability, for example under simple climate change scenarios.

Most Sub-Saharan African cities have a high share of non-motorized traffic (NMT). Their transportation sector does not consume much energy and produces very little greenhouse gas emissions in global comparison. People do not choose to walk or cycle; they simply cannot afford to buy a car. The image of NMT is not a favourable one. Walking and cycling are cost-effective, sustainable, easy-accessible and healthy transport modes though. Based on the description of mobility indicators of Vienna and Addis Ababa, the paper discusses measures of how conditions for vulnerable road users can be improved and how NMT can be marketed as an attractive and trendy modus of locomotion. Good practice examples illustrate the beneficial effects of future oriented sustainable traffic planning and infrastructure.

The present cross sectional study was conducted from December 2013 to September 2014 to assess the influence of climatic variables on the vector and prevalence of bovine trypanosomosis in three sites of Tselemti district, Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. A total of 500 cattle were considered to know the prevalence of the disease using parasitological approaches, and a total of 15 traps were deployed in the study area to assess biting flies and their distribution. Impact of climatic variables on vector population dynamics and distribution as well as the prediction of the disease incidence for the three terms (2013–2099) with respect to the climatic variables was done with climatic models. Arc GIS software (version 9.3) was used for spatial disease and vector distribution analysis. The future time series was constructed by the statistical downscaling technique using predictor variables of HadCM3A2a and HadCM3B2a. The overall prevalence of trypanosomosis in cattle was 8% and a significant variation (p < 0.05) was observed between agro-ecology classes. Out of 6211 biting flies caught in the study area, 2824 (45.5%), 163 (2.6%) and 3224 (51.9%) were of the genus stomoxis, tabanus and other biting flies, respectively. The biting fly population was higher in ‘moist-kolla’ (lowland) than ‘moist-weynadega’ (midland) and ‘moist-dega’ (highland). The result of the statistical downscaling model (SDSM) indicates in future three term periods; there will be an increase in temperature within a range of 0.51–1.49 °C and rainfall change within the range of 0.62–30.52% which affects the biology of the biting flies thereby influencing the incidence and distribution of trypanosomosis. Moreover, the focus group discussion indicated for a change in temperature and rainfall in the district. Particular attention should be given to T. vivax and fly population in relation to climatic variables and agro-climatic classes. Moreover, there should be controlled movement of animals from endemic to trypanosomosis free areas in the region to minimize the spread of the disease from lowland to highland areas.

In Africa, the impact of climate change are epitomized by changes in environmental attributes such as rising temperatures and heat waves, flooding, drought, among others. Despite the connection between urban agglomerations and changing climate resulting from anthropogenic activities, not many studies on climate change do focus on urban planning leverages in resilience building. The aim of this study is to examine the operational opportunities in urban planning in Nigeria that can build resilience to climate change impact. This paper posits that, findings can be replicated across Africa. This study used a case study approach and adopted survey and experimental design on a Nigerian urban centre. Survey instruments included structured questionnaire and interview schedules. Ambient air temperatures were measured using thermometers at designated locations. Secondary data sources were books, journals, and reports, including from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (Nimet). The ANOVA statistics shows a significant difference (F = 10.249, p < 0.05) between the average temperature reading across the sampled locations. Observed local resilience strategies to climate change effect synchronize with some of the urban planning convention as contained in the interim development order. Unfortunately, the declining urban green elements −4.0 km per annum and the increasing built-up area +1.0 km per annum in the city are evidence of weak enforcement. The study concludes with planning recommendations for leveraging climate change resilience building including a review of the interim development order among others.

The phenomenal impact of climate change is of a great concern for animal production, and the human populations that depend on it for income, meat, milk, and draught power. With particular focus on West Africa and other developing countries, this study describes some of the climate related challenges of livestock farming. It also highlights the adaptive traits of the N’Dama cattle in the context of climate change. It is becoming more evident that smallholder livestock farmers in West Africa are vulnerable, and need to cope with environmental stressors associated with climate change. The emerging trend of animal disease outbreaks, warm weather, reduced precipitation, and feed shortages especially in the prolonged dry seasons are among the challenges which climate variability poses to livestock producers. N’Dama cattle possess certain potentials such as disease tolerance, coat colour, special service and products which would enhance the resilience of smallholder livestock farmers. The findings of this study will properly inform future policy design and implementation. New information and evidences in this study will help farmers, government and development agencies to sustainably utilize locally adapted breeds such as the N’Dama cattle to enhance climate change adaptation and food security in the West African region.

In several areas of the world, water distribution influences the local development. In the volcano-tectonic depressions of the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) many perennial rivers and lakes are present and constitute an important resource for agriculture, livestock, fishery, soda abstraction, human health and local ecosystems. This paper focuses on the analysis of the temporal and spatial variations of water surface of the lakes in the central Ethiopian Rift in relations to precipitation climatology, in order to better understand the effective role of the climate in the water resources modification in respect to human factor. This should help to establish correct water management practice and implement integrated water management for the protection of lakes in reason of their impacts on the lifestyles of intended beneficiaries like farmers, fishermen, and domestic water consumers. The employed approach and integrated different satellite data (Landsat and NASA-TRMM) in order to generate a proper database for the analysis of the seasonal movements according to climatological variations.

Serengeti National Park is famed for its wildlife migration tourism for decades. The park contributes substantially to country’s revenue and is a major employment arena that is based on tourism activities. Wildlife migration is the major tourist attraction in Serengeti and climate-dependent. There is a growing concern that climate has changed significantly with potential influence on wildlife migration. However, the knowledge of the consequences of climate-change on Serengeti’s tourism are poorly known. This paper analyses the consequences of rainfall and temperature variability and change, and associated land-cover changes on major tourist attractions and tourism over the past four decades. The results show that natural climate is an important factor shaping tourism seasonality and tourist attractions in Serengeti. Key impacts of increasing rainfall and temperature variability, and associated land-cover change include disruption of tourism seasonality, wildebeest migration patterns, and reduced diversity of tourist attractions. Both negatively affect tourism by reducing the park’s attractiveness. Adapting tourism to climate-change impacts requires active and integrated management approaches that improve the park’s attractiveness. The results can be used to develop climate-change adaptation strategies and inform conservation and tourism planning.

Seasonal climate outlooks have become a necessary input to agricultural planning and execution of all farming activities as a form of adaptation to climate change and variability. Extended climate forecasts of 3–4 months pose a challenge to farmers as it is difficult for them to pinpoint exactly what might happen on daily, weekly or decadal time scales. In addition, such forecasts are presented in form of probability maps and in very coarse resolution, making them difficult for farmers to comprehend. Community-specific downscaled forecasts offer an opportunity for farmers to decide on what, where and when to plant, allocation of resources and on other investment options. This study evaluated various downscaling tools and procedures for seasonal forecast interpretation over the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) region. The tools evaluated were: analogue year approach, Fact-Fit tool, Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI) and GeoCLIM tool. Analogue year approach turned out to be good but highly dependent on accuracy of the selected year; Fact-Fit tool was able to convert the seasonal probability forecasts into amounts but unable to disaggregate rainfall amounts at daily, weekly or dekadal time scales; the WRSI tool used was limited to a number of crops, seasons and regions but was necessary for monitoring seasonal progress and predicting crop performance. The current GeoCLIM software used was unable to disaggregate rainfall amounts to daily, weekly or dekadal scales but was good for suitability analysis and producing spatial distribution rainfall maps. An integrated approach is therefore desirable for producing more reliable and dependable location-specific seasonal forecasts for direct application by farmers and other agricultural practitioners. This is so important in the Horn of Africa region, where climate change is already affecting populations, and adaptation is seen as a major approach to cope with the impacts of climate change.

This paper assesses adaptation pathways for smallholder African Indigenous Vegetable (AIV) value chains. The analysis is based on field research in three agro-climatic zones (ACZ) of Kenya as part of the interdisciplinary research project HORTINLEA (Horticultural Innovations and Learning for Improved Nutrition and Livelihood in East Africa). Data from the 2014 panel survey comprising 1232 households, of which 610 have been examined in more detail, complements the findings. As in many African countries, Kenya’s population will double by 2050 and food value chains will face huge challenges. AIVs, being rich in micronutrients (e.g. vitamins A and C, and iron), are relatively easy to grow within a short vegetation period. Hence they can be part of the solution to hidden hunger. AIVs’ share in vegetable area has almost doubled from 8 to 14% within three years, contributing to an increased income for smallholders, provided that production, transport and marketing function adequately. Most farmers suffer from the impacts of climate change. The household survey indicates that 67% are negatively affected by increasing variations in rainfall patterns, and 85% by changes in temperatures. Farmers need to adapt their farm-level management to climate change in order to cope with these challenges. Incremental adaptation strategies such as changing crop portfolios are relatively widespread. In contrast, adaptations that require transformative efforts are rare. Growing AIVs is itself considered an adaptation strategy, as their sensitivity to climate variability is generally low, as is analysed in great detail in this paper. Empowerment of growers to participate in high value and ecologically sustainable AIV value chains requires specific policies and extension in order to close the adaptation gaps of AIV smallholders.

The Ethiopian government has committed to building a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) that aims to ensure economic development whilst pursuing a low emissions pathway and building resilience to climate change. While the Government’s green economy strategy targets the financial opportunities and sustainability co-benefits of low emissions development, the climate resilient strategy focuses on managing risk and building resilience to shocks brought about by climate change. The effectiveness of these national policy processes in directing the delivery of climate finance are assessed through the use of a principles, criteria and indicators (PCI) analytical framework. The four principles of policy development considered relevant to the effective delivery of climate change finance are ease of implementation, legitimacy, coherence and transparency. The analyses of effectiveness suggest the main policy instrument, the CRGE strategy, has been well designed for ease of implementation, with coherence across the two main elements of the strategy (mitigation and adaptation). The mitigation (or green economy) element began earlier and has been influential in informing the overall growth trajectory that aims to secure for Ethiopia middle income status by 2025 in a carbon neutral way. The more recent adaptation (or climate resilience) part of the strategy has now been prepared for the agriculture, forestry, water and energy sectors. This demonstrates effective sector prioritisation so as to secure the livelihoods of those most vulnerable to climate change. Two areas are identified where further effectiveness gains may be sought for enhancing adaptation. The first concerns securing the active participation of all stakeholders in the policy process so as to maximise the likelihood of implementation of climate change programmes and projects. Second, the present policy is silent on how it will promote transparency in climate finance delivery, which is a generally-held principle of public administration. Creating additional space for non-government actors (including micro and small business entrepreneurs and community leaders) to participate in policy influencing platforms and developing and subsequently publishing performance-based measures for the allocation of climate finance are recommended for more effective implementation of Ethiopia’s CRGE climate policy.

Forests, when sustainably managed with the participation of local communities, can have a central role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. One of the most important forest ecosystem services is carbon sink from atmosphere during its early growing stage as compared to the late stage. And this has been used as a climate change adaptation strategy locally and mitigation mechanism globally to curb the multi-sectorial problems of climate change. But this depends on effective participation of the households on forest ecosystem service provision (FESP) activities. Therefore, this paper presents the socio-economic determinants of the local household participation on FESP using 157 sampled households with econometric and descriptive analysis. The result shows that FESP negatively determined by gender difference, state of agro-ecology/agro-ecosystem, level of annual net benefit, distance to forest site and other source of income while attending on community meeting and literacy level increased level of participation thereby increasing annual return of individual local households. Furthermore, the highest returns from FESP goes to the rich households and the poor earn less for their fair share of labor though highest costs covered by the rich. Therefore, all users and services providers ought to facilitate inspiring environments to gear the way forward for climate change adaptation and mitigation mechanisms in the future.

This paper explores adaptations and the perceived responses of success to the effects of climate variability on agricultural production in selected highland and lowland areas of Ethiopia based on primary and secondary data obtained from different sets of stakeholders using a mixed research approach. This study reveals that pastoralists and farmers are employing agricultural and non-agricultural responses at various levels to climate variability. However, generally, highland farmers’ have more coping and adaptation options both in agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood practices. Moreover, the majority of maladaptation options are practiced by farmers. Similarly, female-headed households showed more adaptive response options than their male counterparts who suffered from cultural prejudice. Some existing adaptation practices are hardly useful in times of severe drought where pastoralists and farmers suffer partial or total crop failure and mass death of livestock. In this case, they could not sustain their life without relief aid. Pastoralists and farmers perceived adaptation success to climate variability is determined by differences in age, income, gender and education. Thus, only the rich, educated and the young had positively perceived the success of their responses to climate variability. In other words, there are variations in objective adaptive capacity and not all pastoralists and farmers possess the subjective factor (motivation) for adaptation to climate variability. The study concludes that future adaptation strategies should capitalize on preparing pastoralists and farmers for extreme scenarios.

Ethiopia’s highlands are the backbone for the nation’s agriculture production which is dominated by smallholder mixed farming systems. Increasing population in combination with unsustainable land management and farming practices continue enhancing pressure on the natural resources of land and water. Unpredictable climate variability further contributes increasingly to low agricultural productivity and production. In response to these challenges soil and water conservation has to be combined with sustainable agriculture practices, whereby the latter need a strong focus on strengthening adaptation among smallholding farmers. Adaptation to climate signals is very diverse and very complex to measure and there is an urgent need for a systematic classification with regard to what is called “climate-smart agriculture”. This paper presents a systematic approach of rating agriculture interventions and practices as well as soil and water conservation measures with regard to their adaptation potentials. Adaptation potential is described in a basket-of-options with six sub-parameters and separately for degraded hill sides, communal grazing land, farm land and homesteads. Results from piloting in the field revealed that single measures often show a trade-off between adaptation, mitigation or economic benefits. Therefore a combination of single measures is recommended to overcome the trade-offs and to optimize the triple win benefits. The basket-of-options provides a helpful tool also to combine measures to strengthen specifically the adaptation benefits of measures.

Silvopasture is a tree-based livestock production system where trees and shrubs planted on pasturelands, backyards, and farmlands provide fodder as well as other multiple benefits. Silvopastoral systems are more adapted to changing climate and weather, as foliage production from trees and shrubs is less affected by such changes than grasses. Moreover, unlike conventional grass-based pastures, which contribute to green house gas emissions through land conversions and increased enteric methane production from livestock, silvopastoral systems contribute towards mitigation of green house gases though direct sequestration of atmospheric carbon and reduction of enteric methane production. Similarly trees and shrubs in silvopastoral systems contribute to general ecological integrity through improvement of soil fertility, soil and water conservation and farm and pastureland productivities. Appreciating the different benefits of silvopastoral system a lot of fodder tree species mainly Cystisus proliferus, Sesbania sesban and Leucaena leucaocephala have been introduced into the dryland livestock production systems of Ethiopia. However, such species did not bring envisaged benefits of increased livestock production and climate change adaptation, because most of these species, being exotic, failed to adapt to local socio-ecological settings. It is therefore, argued that locally adaptable species selected by local farmers, like F. thonningii explained in this paper, are more efficient in improving the productivity of livestock in drylands while at the same time increasing their capacity to adapt to recurrent drought or changing climate. Therefore, increased intervention and investment aimed at identification, promotion and implementation of indigenous species for silvopastoral system based practices is recommended for achieving climate resilience and increased productivity in the livestock sector of the dry lands.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Communities in the global south are particularly confronting multitude of problems related to climate change. Governments and non-government agencies have so far been trying several interventions measures to address both the immediate and long-term challenges of climate change. However, the efforts mostly tend to focus on addressing immediate needs than long term solutions for many reasons. The overall purpose of this paper was to critically examine the ways in which climate change and related concepts are perceived by different local actors and the contribution of humanitarian aid response towards long term adaption of pastoral communities in Afar region, Ethiopia. We used ethnographic research approach to look into the intervention programs in Afar region Ethiopia and found that interventions which were intended to bring adaptation have indeed not achieved their purposes for reasons the locals related to the ways decisions about interventions are made. While the need at local level is transformation, current interventions focus on maintaining the status quo. This is ineffective as there is very limited possibility that status quo can be managed given the dramatic and lasting changes the area is going through in terms of climate requiring bigger transformation.

The changing climate is a threat to the smallholder farmers. Poverty and limited livelihood options increase vulnerability to climate risks. To counter this, a partnership between research and development organizations and the Nyando rural community developed Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) model to test local actions that ensure food security, promote adaptation and build resilience to climatic stresses. The purpose of the study was to explore the changes in farming practices made by households which are arising from the partnership. The study made use of household-level surveys for five years (2011–2015). The findings show increased use of terracing to conserve soil and water, intercropping, use of improved crop varieties, and households adopting three or more new crop types, greatly expanding on-farm choices for resilient varieties. The results can be used to showcase crop production practices suitable for adapting to the changing climate in rural communities.

Land use and land cover (LULC) change is one of the most visible results of human’s modification of the terrestrial ecosystem, and it has a significant impact on climate. Urbanization has been a major force of LULC throughout human history that has had a great impact on climate change. Urban areas generally have higher absorption of solar radiation and greater thermal capacity and conductivity, leading to a relatively higher temperature in the urban areas compared with the surrounding rural areas. Studies related to the impact of land use and land cover changes in Addis Ababa are few. This study therefore examined the influence of LULC change on urban climate in Addis Ababa city from 1986 to 2011 by retrieving land surface temperature (LST) from thermal infrared (TIR) data of Landsat TM satellite data. The results show that in Addis Ababa, the area for grass land, agricultural land, forest land and bare land declined by 43.32, 16.03, 9.74, and 9.65 km2, respectively, on the other hand, built-up areas was dramatically expanded from 100.13 km2 in 1986 to 180.13 km2 in 2011 that is almost two times from the base year. Changes in LULC were accompanied by changes in LST. The average LST in 1986 was 302 K (28.88 °C) and it increased to 304 K (30.88 °C) in 2011. The change in LST is mainly associated with changes in impervious surface. The urban-rural temperature differences between the urban core and its surrounding areas show a maximum difference of 15 K. This could lead to an intensified urban heat island effect in the urban areas. The relationship between LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) clearly shows that vegetation has great impact on reducing UHI effect. Thus, development of urban green spaces is one of the most promising climate change adaptation response in order to minimize the impact of elevated temperatures on human health and comfort.

Agriculture is the most important industry in Ethiopia. However, it has not yet provided adequate food security and economic well-being of Ethiopians to date. This inadequate performance was largely, among others, due to inadequate agricultural technology generation and delivery systems, poor rural infrastructure, inadequate irrigation, and limited use of agricultural inputs, environmental degradation and most importantly climate change. To bring about sustained agricultural growth, improvement in infrastructure and soil and water management and conservation, enhanced input supply and distribution systems, strengthening of agricultural research and extension, investing on clean and renewable energy sources, introducing a variety of drought tolerant crops and livestock, protecting and re-establishing forests, improving crop and livestock production practices, developing capacities to better analyze and anticipate climate change risks, enhancing indigenous climate change coping mechanisms, etc. will make Ethiopia resilient to climate change.

Climate change is affecting million of people in Africa in general, in Ethiopia in particular. This situation will be further worsened by its poor state of economic development and low adaptive capacity. This paper, based on anthropological approach, deals with perceptions, indicators and adaptive strategies of climate change. The study reveals that local communities well perceived, that their local climate has changed over the last two decades. The change in turn negatively affected their physical environment. Local climate change affected communities’ agricultural activity, which is their means of subsistence. In order to cope up with the effects of climate change, communities used different adaptive strategies. Among these, they developed positive attitude towards their physical environment through discussion, and by participating in environmental rehabilitation program such as watershed management. They also shift the time of farm operation and flexible their working plan in line with rainfall availability. Moreover, changing crop varieties from traditional seed to improved ones, diversifying their crops and mobilize local labor in the form of exchange and in terms of cash are among the adaptive strategies used by the communities. However, adaptive capacities are not uniform and they are based on differences in the level of asset ownership, gender and the type of labor owned. Therefore, capacities of disadvantaged social groups such as female household heads, unhealthy and poor households need to get assistance and building their capacity is important to reduce negative climate change effects on them.

This study conducted in western Kenya demonstrates how a gendered intersectionality lens can be used to explore how and the extent to which farming communities are coping with climate change. Results from a quantitative survey undertaken with 51 farmers and from 4 focused group discussions held with 33 farmers (19 males and 14 females) indicate that 85% of the respondents are willing to adopt climate-smart agriculture (CSA) interventions if constraining factors are resolved.This study reveals that farmers, regardless of whether they are male or female, are willing to adopt climate smart technologies and practices. However, factors such as ethnicity, education, age and marital status determine the levels of uptake of CSA technologies and practices. Looking at crops for instance, we find a high uptake (62.7%) of improved high yielding varieties (HYVs) amongst farmers with primary level education, meaning literacy levels influence adoption of practices. Analysis using age as a lens reveals that there is a high uptake among the youth and adults. Interestingly, the study site comprises of both the Luo and Kalenjin ethnic communities and even though they neighbor each other, we find a high rate of uptake among the Luo community due to existing social and cultural norms and practices related to farming. In conclusion, using a gendered intersectionality lens strengthens the argument for targeted interventions which focus on local needs and priorities while recognizing local contexts as informed by social, cultural and economic factors.

Water availability in semi-arid regions is increasingly becoming threatened by frequent droughts due to climate change and variability. Crop adaptation to climate change, particularly to drought, has become a priority in Africa. Water use efficiency (WUE) is one important trait in adapting crops to water limited environments, but its direct measurement remains a challenge. Hence, there is need for surrogate traits. A two-year study was carried out with four moisture levels, ranging from well-watered to severe stress, combined with four commercial triticale genotypes as treatments. The study evaluated the use of carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) as a proxy of WUE in triticale. The study revealed strong influence of soil moisture on Δ13C, intrinsic WUE (photosynthetic rate/stomatal conductance) and grain yield of triticale. Higher soil moisture levels significantly increased Δ13C while lower values of Δ13C were observed under water stressed conditions. The relationship between Δ13C and grain yield was positive (P < 0.01), but were only significant under water stressed conditions, indicating dependence of the relationship on moisture level. Intrinsic WUE and Δ13C showed a negative relationship for combined data of all moisture levels. Overall, the study showed that Δ13C could be useful as a triticale grain yield predictor under drought conditions. In addition, Δ13C also offered potential as a proxy of intrinsic WUE and could be used for breeding towards improved drought tolerance in triticale.

This paper presents an innovative weather forecast and dissemination model that works for rural farmers, using Uganda as a case study. The model aims to enhance farmers’ resilience and adaptive capacity to address climate change related impacts, by promoting access and use of weather forecasts throughout the country. The weather forecast model is a simple and easy to understand seasonal weather forecast, translated into local languages with sector specific advisories. The forecasts are distributed via diverse channels to reach as many rural farmers, especially women farmers. Periodic user feedback surveys are helping to refine the model but also to improve collaboration and relationship of end users and meteorologists. This paper highlights testimonies from farmers and seasonal weather information best practices that help rural communities plan and cope with farming challenges in a changing environment. Furthermore, the paper provides policy suggestions for the Uganda Meteorological Authority to consider towards institutionalizing the model for scale up and sustainability purposes. These suggestions could apply to any meteorological agency in any African or developing country.

Rapidly changing climatic conditions in East Africa are increasing sources of vulnerability for rural agricultural communities. Current agricultural practices and institutional coping mechanisms are unable to cope with these changes, and calls for adaptation in agricultural systems. The CGIAR Research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has developed the Climate Analogue tool that connects sites with statistically similar (‘analogous’) climatic conditions, across space and time. The tool can and has been used to connect farmers and agricultural stakeholders to their plausible future climates through the Farms of the Future (FotF) approach—where farmers learn about potential adaptation strategies and institutional innovations through farmer–to–farmer exchanges between analogue sites. The FotF approach can be used together with ongoing support for participatory action research to build reflective capacity and awareness of challenges farmers likely to face and to identify and develop possible solutions among farmers and other agricultural stakeholders. This paper documents the learning experiences of farmers from Nyando, in Western Kenya during through participation in the climate learning journey across other counties in Kenya. The paper also shows how these farmers are planning to use their learning experiences to design local adaptation plans of actions.

Little information is available on the effects of changes in land use/land cover (LULC) on climate variability in Ethiopia. To characterize this influence, a study was conducted on 30 selected coffee plots along an altitudinal gradient (1500–2100 masl) in Jimma area. The LULC of the transect was characterized using aerial photographs and satellite images and clipped around each coffee plot at the scale of 50, 100 and 200 m radius. To determine the effect of shade (trees), one of the LULC, on microclimate variability, temperature (°C) was recorded both under shade and open area using data loggers along the gradient from June 2012 to 2015. Eight LULC (crop land, pasture land, exotic trees, indigenous trees, river, road, urban and extraction site) were identified in the area. Some of the coffee plots were composed of small areas of trees and large areas of cropland and vice versa. The presence of cropped and pasture land prevented the occurrence of indigenous and exotic trees respectively. Based on LULC, the 30 coffee plots were grouped into three coffee classes (Isolated coffee plots (class1), patch of coffee plots (class2) and coffee plots with contiguous forest (class3). Coffee plots of class3, characterized by high tree density, has lower mean temperature and high relative humidity and wetness duration both during wet and dry season. During the wet season, there was a maximum temperature difference of 1.21 °C among the coffee classes while in the dry season it was 1.03 °C. Furthermore, a mean temperature difference of about 1 °C was observed between open and under shade conditions. Along the gradient, the variation was similar indicating a possibility of developing a shade management strategy as an adaptation option to climate change impact on coffee along an altitudinal gradient.

There is still a strong disconnect between the parameters and scale of information that farmers prefer and those of the seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs). There is a need to augment SCFs as they are currently presented; to make them more useful for farm decision making. The objective of this study was to use simple statistical methods of analysis to characterise long term rainfall for estimating climate risk in semi-arid Zimbabwe. This study reveals the importance of accessing long-term daily rainfall records to enable “weather-within-climate” analyses that can be tailored to the needs of farmers. The most critical point is to describe the climate in terms of events of direct relevance to farming rather than simple standard measures. Agronomically, the important rainfall events relevant to farmers in rainfed agriculture include the start, end and length of the rainy season, risks of dry spells as well as the distribution of rainfall amounts through the year. There are difficult risks in El Nino compared to Ordinary and La Nina seasons in terms of frequency and length of dry spells, number of rain days, rainfall onset and cessation dates and total rainfall amount. The chance of a dry-spell being broken is also considerably lower in El Nino years, compared to La Nina and Ordinary years. Packaging SCF with historic climate data as well as bringing in the shorter range forecasts, together with the experience of the season as it develops is a way in which value could be added to climate information dissemination. Technologies that enhance water use efficiency could also be one of the major areas of research to be integrated into the semi-arid farmers’ existing strategies to cope with climate variability and ultimately change.

Over the years, farmers have been innovating to address various challenges such as declining crop and livestock production, poor soil health, water loss, pests and diseases, among other challenges that some farmers perceive as being partly related to climate change. The resultant innovations have great potential for improving food security, natural resource management (NRM) and livelihoods. However, formal research usually pays very little or no attention to these local innovations despite their potential to improve the livelihoods of farm families and to benefit the wider community, if these local initiatives are well supported. In responding to irregular rainfall patterns and degradation of natural resources, farmers in Machakos and Kitui semi-arid Counties of Kenya have come up with various innovations related to crops, livestock and NRM. These include finger millet nurseries, wall terraces for water harvesting, combining rock-hyrax manure with farmyard manure, and determining the sex of chicks before they hatch.This chapter presents a new approach to agricultural research and development (ARD) that is complementary to conventional ARD approaches and is implemented through the project Combining Local Innovative Capacity with Scientific Research (CLIC–SR) funded by Rockefeller Foundation in Eastern Africa. The focus here is on the work in Kenya. CLIC–SR promotes a farmer co-managed mechanism known as Local Innovation Support Fund (LISF) to catalyse locally defined experimentation and innovation. This support has led to increased awareness of the important role of farmer innovation in dealing with climate change and other challenges to improving food security and NRM.

Local knowledge is critical to fill paucity in climate recordings, enrich the scientific inquiry of climate change, and balance the top down policy that emanates from global discourse of climate change. However, lack of methodology to document and incorporate with scientific inquiry became a bottleneck. In this regard, a simply but sensible methodology was introduced in this study to document and analyze indigenous ways of knowing climate change among subsistence farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia. Accordingly, local knowledge has offered worthwhile information and techniques on detection, attribution and impacts of climate change. It demonstrated pronounced changes in the local climate with concrete instances. It directly or indirectly supports the idea of anthropogenic causes but with cultural dimensions in it. It detailed the impacts observed on health, water, farming and infestation of insects and weeds. It has also revealed some psychosocial impacts that are rarely reported in the literature. These results illustrate the importance of local knowledge in complementing the scientific evidence of climate change with detailed and concrete evidences. Finally, through the application of a technique introduced in this study, it was learnt that some farmers may not feel they are adapting to climate change while carrying out the same adaptation strategies reported by others who claim adapting to climate change. This warrants the need to understand climate driven adaptive behavior along with a mix of non-climate drivers of adaptation.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the links between observed climate and weather related impacts on development in the selected States of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region and to provide perspectives for adaptation opportunities necessary to build a resilient future, as well as pathways to sustainable development. Current and future climate associated events endanger sustainable development (SD) in Nigeria and particularly in the coastal Niger Delta. The situation was examined by analyzing a 30-year temperature and rainfall data from 1980 to 2010 obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). It was found that temperature trend in different States of the region that made up the study area was increasing while rainfall was variable and declining. Scientific literatures that reveal varying evidence on the effects of climate variability in the region were reviewed and used to complement the results. Nonetheless, the effects of climatic change such as seasonal and erratic flooding, coastal erosion, and variation in temperature and rainfall threaten people’s wellbeing and contributed further to environmental degradation. However, the paper envisages that practical adaptation measures are necessary to reduce negative impacts and exploit beneficial opportunities. In this regard, adaptation measures that need to be addressed to reinforce sustainable development initiatives were suggested. The findings will be useful to decision-makers, non-governmental organizations, relevant institutions, and government agencies in Nigeria.

Poverty and climate change are two of the most urgent issues the world is facing; and the view that poverty represents a constraint for a household’s adaptive capacities is widely accepted. However, poverty has been predominantly defined through an economic lens, thus ignoring the multidimensional nature of poverty. In this study, a cross-sectional survey is used to explore the effect of poverty on adaptive capacities in northern Benin. Three indices of poverty (monetary, multidimensional and traditional) were calculated along with two proxies of adaptive capacities (crop-related changes and perceived coping strategies). A significant lack of overlap was found between the three poverty indices. Multiple deprivations are negatively associated with both crop-related changes and perceived coping strategies. Improved economic status, through monetary or traditional asset growth, is associated with increased innovations, but only for the poorest households. Results of the multivariate analysis also suggest that in a context of rural poverty, social capital plays an important, and potentially compensating role in fostering adaptive capacities. Overall, this study illustrates that a purely economic view, most often relying on a single poverty measure, is insufficient to understand the complexity of the poverty-adaptive capacity nexus.

Rural people living in coastal zones of developing countries depend on climate-sensitive occupations. Changes in climate have affected most human and natural activities, fisheries inclusive. The fisherfolk have therefore become more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This paper examined the factors that predispose fishermen to vulnerability and assesses the various adaptive strategies used by fisheries-based livelihoods to cope with the impact of climate variability and change in Lagos State, Nigeria. The two stage stratified sampling method was used to select 247 fishers located in the three Agricultural Development Programme zones in the state. Copies of a questionnaire were used for data collection at household level. These were analysed using descriptive statistics. Fishermen encountered several forms of vulnerability due to climate change, such as seasonality in fishing, loss of fishing inputs and family members to natural disasters/accidents. Others include hostility by members of host communities to migrants, injury and breakdown of health as well as susceptibility to STDs and HIV/AIDS. Decision to migrate as a result of climate change was made by 74.5% of the fishermen and 64.8% did not want the climate to keep on changing because it was not considered favourable. Some of the preferred adaptive strategies were timely access to information on climate change, alternative businesses, and saving for the future.