Human Adaptation to Land Use and Climate Change in Gunu and its Environs, in Shiroro Area of Niger State Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract The global understandings about the dynamics of land use land cover change have been established to trigger several environmental issues at all scales; climate change inclusive. As a consequence, an insight on how humans have adapted to these changes has become extremely important, particularly at a local scale where the adaptive capacity may be low or inadequate. Gunu was considered as a case study in Niger state, Nigeria with the aim of examining land use land cover change of the area using geospatial techniques, as well as the trend of climate vagaries. Landsat images of 1990, 2006 and 2015 were obtained from the USGS. Climatic trends were established using 1975-2014 data (rainfall and temperature) acquired from NIMET. The result obtained from the Landsat imageries shows that within the time period, vegetation decreased by 35 %, while built up areas, farmlands and bare surfaces increased by 20%, 8 % and 6 % respectively. The rainfall and temperature of the area shows increasing trend with mean values of 1200mm and 27.75°C respectively. The agricultural implications for human adaptation to these changes were examined based on the people’s responses. The outcome of the research suggested that climate friendly practices should be encouraged in the area by rural development agencies and relevant stakeholders. Also a need to promote sustainable land management on a local scale and community land use planning and action should be implemented and strengthened to address climate change in the study area while scaling up the people’s adaptation.