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<p>Climate change is a serious threat to local communities in West Africa. This study evaluated climatic trends and the perceptions of farmers to climate change in central Côte d’Ivoire. We surveyed 259 households across three agro-ecological zones. The knowledge of farmers about climate change was compared to observed trends of various climatic parameters from meteorological records (1973-2016). Results from trend analysis and descriptive analysis showed that the minimum, maximum and mean temperatures and rainfall showed a significant upward trend in all ecoregions. The average temperature and amount of rainfall increased by 3.2% (0.89°C) and 166.58% (645.5 mm) respectively over the 44 years. Local farmers perceived an increasing trend in temperature (all respondents) and a decreasing trend in rainfall (91.51%). Most of the respondents identified deforestation (76.83%), natural climate variation (50.97%) and wildfires (31.27%) as the main causes of these climatic disturbances, which induced plant dieback (92.66%), poor crop growth (59.46%) and crop loss (20.46%). The impacts on people and their assets encompassed a decrease in household income (63.71%), demolition of roofs (44..4%) and walls (43.91%) of houses, the scarcity of water points (39.38%) and the emergence of new diseases (30.89%). These climatic disturbances resulted in specific endogenous on-farm and off-farm strategies to adapt to the impacts of observed changes on their livelihoods.</p>
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Climate change is a serious threat to local communities in West Africa. This study evaluated climatic trends and the perceptions of farmers to climate change in central Côte d’Ivoire. We surveyed 259 households across three agro-ecological zones. The knowledge of farmers about climate change was compared to observed trends of various climatic parameters from meteorological records (1973-2016). Results from trend analysis and descriptive analysis showed that the minimum, maximum and mean temperatures and rainfall showed a significant upward trend in all ecoregions. The average temperature and amount of rainfall increased by 3.2% (0.89°C) and 166.58% (645.5 mm) respectively over the 44 years. Local farmers perceived an increasing trend in temperature (all respondents) and a decreasing trend in rainfall (91.51%). Most of the respondents identified deforestation (76.83%), natural climate variation (50.97%) and wildfires (31.27%) as the main causes of these climatic disturbances, which induced plant dieback (92.66%), poor crop growth (59.46%) and crop loss (20.46%). The impacts on people and their assets encompassed a decrease in household income (63.71%), demolition of roofs (44..4%) and walls (43.91%) of houses, the scarcity of water points (39.38%) and the emergence of new diseases (30.89%). These climatic disturbances resulted in specific endogenous on-farm and off-farm strategies to adapt to the impacts of observed changes on their livelihoods.

Observed climate trends, perceived impacts and community adaptation practices in Côte d’Ivoire

Environmental & Socio-economic Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Climate change is a serious threat to local communities in West Africa. This study evaluated climatic trends and the perceptions of farmers to climate change...

Observed climate trends, perceived impacts and community adaptation practices in Côte d’Ivoire

Published Online: Sep 27, 2022

Page range: 43 - 58

Received: May 30, 2022

Accepted: Aug 24, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/environ-2022-0016

Keywords
climate change, local perception, coping strategies, rural livelihoods, smallholder agriculture, N’Zi River Watershed

© 2022 Jean-Luc Kouassi et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Observed climate trends, perceived impacts and community adaptation practices in Côte d’Ivoire

Published Online: Sep 27, 2022

Page range: 43 - 58

Received: May 30, 2022

Accepted: Aug 24, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/environ-2022-0016

Keywordsclimate change, local perception, coping strategies, rural livelihoods, smallholder agriculture, N’Zi River Watershed

© 2022 Jean-Luc Kouassi et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
climate change, local perception, coping strategies, rural livelihoods, smallholder agriculture, N’Zi River Watershed