Impacts of climate change and vulnerability of African pastoralists – Trend and pattern of local climate indices

Abstract

This paper illustrates the situation of climate change and its impacts on the vulnerability of African pastoralists. Pastoralists in Africa face various climate change challenges that suppress their livelihoods and constrain their ability to adapt to fluctuations in the external environment. Although diverse scenarios of climate change impacts on African pastoralism have been proposed, climate-related changes will probably stimulate social and economic factors that intensify insecurity and conflicts, which undermine the adaptive capacity of pastoralists. Changes in climate extremes have been observed across the whole Nigeria over the last few decades. In this paper, climate change indicators of central Nigeria where a large population of pastoralists are settling in is analyzed to demonstrate the meteorological evidence of climate change. The perspectives of pastoralists on climate change impacts on their livelihoods are also introduced. Meteorological data demonstrate the great variations in duration and availability of rainfall over the last few decades. Increasing temperatures with higher irregularity are also observed. Interviewed pastoralists have a high awareness of the occurrence of climate change. Variation in rainfall and heat have various impacts on their livelihoods and increase their vulnerability as their adaptive capacity are getting more restrained.