Assessment of Residents Perception on Climate Change; Awareness, Impact and Mitigation Using Trees in Selected Parts of Adamawa State Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the Residents Perception on Climate Change; Awareness, Impact and Mitigation Using Trees in Adamawa State Nigeria. The study used multistage sampling technique and primary data were collected from 383 households across the Adamawa State of Nigeria. Data for this study was collected from primary source. Data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and oral interview. The questionnaire has been divided into four sections, Section A deals with the personal information of the respondents such as sex, age, educational background and socio-economic activities among others. Section B, deals with the information on the level of climate change awareness, Section C on the Impact of climate change and Section D on the perception of residents on climate change mitigation using trees in the study area. The analytical techniques that were used are descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as mean, table, percentages and frequencies were employed to analyze socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their perceptions on the reduction of global warming using trees. Chi-Square (X2 ) was used to test the association between the respondent‟s socio-economic activities and their level of climate change awareness, perception on climate change mitigation using trees. The results show that, about 71% of respondents said to have aware of the issue of climate change. Also, according to respondents, climate change has great impact on agriculture and water resources in the study area. The questionnaire analysis also shows that, 82% of the respondents agreed that trees help in reducing the global warming, while 18% do not. The X2 results showed that, there is strong association (P=0.000) between the respondent‟s educational level and their perceptions on reducing the global warming using trees. Government, cooperate organizations and individual should therefore be encouraged to embark on tree planting to mitigate climate change and restore degraded areas. Efforts should also be geared towards enlightenment of the people‟s perception on the benefits of trees in offsetting CO2 from the atmosphere. A strong long-term political commitment by the government to prevent deforestation, to manage and protect the remaining trees is required as a high priority.