An Assessment of Sedentary Pastoralists Perception of Climate Change in and around Forest and Grazing Reserves of Semi-arid Areas of Northern, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was aimed at assessing the Sedentary Pastoralist perception of Climate Change in and around Grazing and Forest Reserves in Semi-Arid Area of Northern, Nigeria: A total of 125 questionnaires were administered in five selected grazing and forest reserves of the study area using an accidental sampling method. The data for this study were generated using questionnaire administration and interview with community leaders (Ardos). The data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics in formof percentage and narrative form. The study shows that 42.20% of the respondents are of the view that deforestation and overcultivation were the major factors influencing climate change. However 36% of the respondents further confirmed that the increase in the emergence of dry years was the major indicator of climate change, followed by the late onset of rainfall with 27.2%. Furthermore, 44% and 40% of the respondents admitted that climate change has significantly and partially affected water availability while 52% and 41.6% reported having noticed that climate change has significantly and partially affected the availability of pasture resources. This study concluded that human environmental intervention such as deforestation, over-cultivation among others were major factors influencing the rate of climate change in the area. The study further recommended that pastoralist should adopt to develop more resilient practices locally
to cope with the impact of climate change, provision of solar and wind-powered boreholes as alternative waters sources to the sedentary pastoralists as well as the need for the desilting of degraded surface water bodies to make them more productive.

Keywords: Sedentary Pastoralist, Climate Change, Forest/Grazing Reserves, Semi-arid.