Indigenous and Local Communities-Led Initiatives for Climate Change Resilience Development in Niger

Abstract: Covid-19 forewarns the urgency to protect our ecosystem for survival and to prepare nature for future generations. Moreover, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) widely touches, in its new report, on the importance of the input of indigenous knowledge and practices in climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. Niger is at the frontline of climate change and environmental-related disasters, such as recurrent floods, severe droughts, diseases, protracted famines, and heat waves. Desertification is advancing downward at an alarming pace, but rural communities have recently begun earning carbon credit revenues through participatory action projects. Local community involvement has been a sine qua non to a local solution to this global issue of climate change. This research examines the local reality of Nature-Based Solutions to preserve and restore the planet. It explores how Community Based Adaptation helps reverse environmental degradation and invigorate livelihood coping strategies exhausted by climate change. Previous research finds that planting trees contributes to climate change mitigation, but other findings suggest a mix of natural and artificial approaches. This investigation examines whether planting specifically indigenous species and promoting Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration will improve the environment and restore biodiversity. This inquiry is an intellectual interest in constructing knowledge about the plausibility that indigenous and local community initiatives align with the national and local solutions to the global issue of climate-related terrestrial biodiversity loss. Henceforth, to what extent does an extension of the existing environmental peacebuilding success stories in Niger regenerate nature and builds climate change resilience to mitigate the disaster risks? The findings from this fieldwork reveal that planting indigenous species and farmers’ re-greening efforts using sustainable land management techniques improves soil fertility, land productivity, and forage, reversing climate change and environmental-related risks and attaining sustainable development goals. Notwithstanding, future research would provide more clues by including ways in which indigenous and local knowledge can smoothly converge with modern knowledge for a more transformative adaptation of climate resilience development.

Key words: climate change, natural resource management, sustainability, disaster risk, indigenous knowledge

JEL codes: Q5, Q2