The communities of Agoi Ekpo, Agoi Ibami, Etara, Ekuri Eyeyeng and Okokori are indigenous communities in Cross River State of Nigeria. This indigenous peoples, with a population of about 9,600, are peasant farmers and forest gatherers and are faced with climate change which threaten them with irreversible consequences on the lives of the peoples.
The Wise Administration of Terrestrial Environment and Resources (WATER), an NGO that works with indigenous peoples, implemented a capacity building project on climate change and REDD+ for the above-mentioned communities. WATER has organized a training workshop on climate change in each of the beneficiary communities where 550 indigenous peoples participated. This training led to improvement of knowledge of the indigenous participants as follows:
- Climate is the weather conditions of a given geographical area (region, nation) in a period of 30 or more years;
- Climate change is the change of weather conditions of a given geographical area (region, nation) in 30 or more years;
- Heat, windstorm, drought, dryness of streams and rivers, low farm productivity, unpredictable weather patterns, loss of medicinal plants, unstable fruiting of forest plants are changes in climate that have been noted;
- Deforestation for farming and forest degradation - logging, unsustainable collection of non-timber forest products, gas flaring, bush burning, collection of firewood, infrastructure development, factory, vehicle and machineries, population expansion are causes of climate change, etc.;
- Effects of climate change are: loss of forest biodiversity, flooding, drought, loss of water bodies, displacement and conflict, withering of crops, food insecurity, species extinction, decline in wildlife population, wildfire, loss of livelihoods, poverty, mortality, etc.;
- Lessons learned are: There is low knowledge in beneficiary communities on climate change; organizing beneficiary communities for the workshop was problematic particularly coming at the heel of the farming period; the participants realized that climate change is human-induced, and were eager to find solutions to address the situation, which of course is in the next workshop.
A workshop report was produced and shared to the National REDD+ office, regional organizations, as well as key contact persons to all the 5 indigenous communities.
This project is linked to Sustainable Development Goals 13: Climate Action. This project is made possible with funding from Mainyoito Pastoralists Integrated Development Organisation (MPIDO) of Kenya.
