Climate Change Impacts on Coastal Communities: Implications on fishing communities in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

The impacts of climate change are global, yet it varies across region, states and sectors and differs between upland and coastal communities. This underscores the need to evaluate the impacts of climate change in different locations to identify specific effects on environmental, social and economy security of communities as this would help to raise awareness and facilitate suitable sustainable adaptation and mitigation measures to curb the prevailing climate impacts. However, research indicates that there is paucity of studies on assessment of climate change impacts on vulnerable fishing communities in coastal areas in the oil rich Niger Delta region, Nigeria. The aim of this study was to examine the implications of climate change impacts on the livelihoods of fishing communities in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa state, Niger Delta region, Nigeria. The study used survey research design. Primary data of 384 samples were obtained from four major coastal communities in the study area using structured questionnaires. The communities include Koluama I, Koluama II, Furupa and Ezetu. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques with the support of Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The result shows low awareness and low capacity on climate change adaptation and absence of climate change mitigation measures in the communities. It equally shows that climate change is a threat to food security and livelihoods of fishing communities in the study area but not statistically significant from a location-based perspective which may be due to the study limitations. The study concludes that fishing communities in Southern Ijaw and by extension the Niger Delta are facing profound threats from climate change which have led to substantial declines in fish catch and income, posing a direct threat to the economic stability, food security, and overall well-being of communities.