Indigenous knowledge and farmer perceptions of climate and ecological changes in the bamenda highlands of cameroon: Insights from the bui plateau

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Anticipating seasonal and shorter time scale dynamics to farming practices is primordial for indigenous farmers' resilience under extreme environmental conditions, where climate change is a menace to agro-hydro-ecological systems. This paper assesses the effectiveness of indigenous farmers' knowledge and aptitude to read weather signs for informed decisions on their daily and seasonal activities. Such climate-proof development is anchored on indigenous people's knowledge and perceptions in circumstances where the dearth of scientific evidence or information exists as in Cameroon. The study is based on eight focus group discussions and a survey of 597 farming households in seven agro-ecological basins on the Bui Plateau of the Bamenda Highlands. The results indicate that indigenous smallholder farmers value their ability to accurately observe and anticipate local conditions in various ways to serve their local realities more aptly than outside forecasts. Such local knowledge should thus exercise a complementary role weave in a local climate information understanding system that replicates ecological variability.

Details

Original languageEnglish
JournalClimate
Volume7
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-1927-7443/work/187082871

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Ethno-meteorology, Farmers, Indigenous knowledge