Addressing Barriers to Climate Consciousness in Extractive Communities

Mr. Nnimmo and Professor Nenibarini Zabbey talk about cultural challenges to understanding climate change in extractive communities and how to address them. 

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Nnimmo: [00:00:09] Hello listeners. Welcome to another episode of the Partners United podcast on Resource Governance. Today's episode is on promoting climate consciousness in extractive communities, and I will be speaking with Professor Nenibarini Zabbey. Zabbey is both an academic and an environmental activist. He has done a lot of research and works on ways of building climate resilience through ecosystem restoration. Welcome, Professor Zabbey to today's podcast.

Zabbey: [00:00:45] Thank you, sir. It is my pleasure to join this conversation.

Nnimmo: [00:00:48] So much pleasure having you on this talk today. Now, I would like you to just tell us what you think about how much is known about climate change in local extractive communities, communities in the oil shales, and in other areas where some form of one form or the other of extractive action is going on?

Zabbey: [00:01:11] Well, the reality is that extractive communities suffer the double impact of climate change and environmental degradation. But relatively not much is known about climate change in the communities for some obvious reasons. And one of those reasons is the subsisting cultural practices and belief systems that tend to obscure the understanding of climate change impact on extractive communities as well as the way the they tend to adapt to Climate change. So for example, there are Conflicts between cultures, certain cultures and climate change. Adaptive measures. One of those conflicts is that people tend to prefer meals cooked with firewood to those cooked with clean stoves, for example, because they feel that foods cooked with firewood are tastier, and then the aroma is more attractive than those cooked with clean stoves. Secondly, rural farmers in those communities also believe that farming seasons must not start until they experience the first rain that now occurs far into the spring rather than early March due to climate change. Such belief systems tend to obscure the understanding of climate change in extractive communities. As a result, little is known about climate change in extractive communities but they feel the impact, the double impact. And they can tell you that when it rains, we are experiencing flooding that we don't normally experience in the past. But putting you know the face to it is always challenging to them. So it therefore require some level of sensitising, sustained sensitisation and support.

Nnimmo: [00:03:49] Alright. Thank you for that. I was getting worried when you began to speak about cultural barriers to understanding climate change and actions to be taken and then cultural conflicts. But when you say that people prefer foods cooked with firewood because of the aroma of food, especially jollof rice and because they kind of like the smoky taste from such foods. And I fully understand what you mean, but I have a concern, as you said that farmers tend to believe that farming should not begin until after the first rains. Recently we got some information from the meteorological unit of the government talking about when rains will begin to fall and then after the rains people should wait because that would not be sustained rainfall. That rain is going to come at different periods, different months in the year for different regions. Now, how can our people begin to understand that going by the rainfall when to plant, when not to plant? If you said a good plant when the first rains gone and the first one are coming and the government says don't plant with the first rains, what will the farmers do?

Zabbey: [00:04:59] Well, the reality is that there is need for local farmers to adapt to the changing climate. And if not, they will suffer a lot of wastage. By the loss of cultivated crops. For example, in most of the communities, they they practice shifting cultivation. And so their farm areas are usually divided into sections. So they move a mass to a particular section like this year and cultivate. And then the following year they moved to another section and mass. And then they also have a definite time of the year that they start to prepare their land for planting. And even if it is not written anywhere that had been entrenched in their culture in the in the oral tradition. And they have they have received such farming pattern from their forebears, you know, by practicing with them right from childhood, what sociologists will call scaffolding. So they stick to that. And so, for example, if the meteorological agency is saying don't plant in December, for example, in the Ogoni area, which is usually the time that farmers go to cut the grasses in their farmland and start preparing the farm for cultivation. It would be strange to them, to the farmers, and somehow they would ignore such advice. And so that's why there is need for some level of extension services, community outreach programs about the reality of climate change and the need to shift their farming pattern and approaches.

Nnimmo: [00:07:29] What you're saying is that climate change has overturned the usefulness of cultural agricultural calendars. In other words, farmers cannot depend on what they've been doing over the years because things are set, have clearly changed that they are not what they used to be. But you also mentioned the need for extension services. And we do know that over the past few years there's a very high shortage of extension officers. Does this means that we don't have much hope about getting our farmers or people in communities to cope with climate change. How can this kind of knowledge be shared? How can we improve on climate change consciousness if the extension officers and services are not available?

Zabbey: [00:08:13] Well, I think because most of the food, over 80% of the food we consume in Nigeria is produced by smallholder farmers. And we need to place premium importance on what they do. And we need to care. The government needs to care about how they are fairing in terms of their production process. And one key element of communicating innovations in animal and plant production as well as value addition opportunities to the local farmers is by extension service. Like you said, these days they are quite scarce. I hardly see them around. The few that I see there are confined to their offices, which is very, very unfortunate. So what that means is that. In order to surmount the challenges of climate change, in order to sustain food production through the smallholder farmers. In order to guarantee food sovereignty and food security. There is there is absolute need to provide all necessary support to smallholder farmers. And one of such supports will be providing them with extension services. So sensitisation is very key and such sensitisation can be done even at the community level. You know, it could be structured in a way that both state actors or non-state actors who have an interlink program that will communicate the innovations, especially in this case, about the challenges of climate change and how the smallholder farmers can adapt to climate change. In other words, there is need to raise consciousness about climate change, the impact of climate change in local communities, and the need for them to to adapt by engaging in using maybe heat resistant strains or varieties of crops and Climate change, smart varieties that are that the indigenous or that are not having any any form of impact on their production system. So varieties like the GMO use should be discouraged.

Nnimmo: [00:10:52] Thank you so much for making that clarification. And I was going to ask you, when you mention climate, smart agriculture and are you referring to what is popular. The way this is often understood as being of the genetically modified variety. We do know clearly the Indigenous varieties that are adapted to difficult situations like whether it's water stressed with high salinity and whether is lack of rainfall you know there are crops like that are indigenous to the areas where they are needed to be cultivated. So we spent quite a bit of time talking about agriculture in impacted communities. But I think the climate impacts in extractive communities go beyond the effect that these impacts have on agriculture. I would like us to shift our conversation to these other areas, and one of which is especially in Niger-Delta, we heard in the last Intergovernmental Panel report, the sixth report on climate change that was issued in August 2021 that sea level rise is something that's going to continue to grow into the future. It's not going to stop anytime soon. And we do know also that the Niger Delta, the Nigerian coastline, 850 kilometres coastline, is very vulnerable to sea level rise. Can you tell us a bit about what this would mean to extractive communities on the coastlines of Nigeria, especially in Niger Delta, if sea level rise continues?

Zabbey: [00:12:29] Yeah, definitely. It's going to be a serious tragedy in those communities because in the Niger Delta, like you mentioned, most communities are just less than a meter above sea level. It's only few sections of the data that is about four meters or six meters above sea level. What that means is that a greater percentage of land in the Niger Delta is exposed to or vulnerable to flooding as a consequence of sea level rise. So there is going to be massive flooding because the Niger Delta is dissected by creeks, rivers and rivulets as well as estuaries. So what that means is that the Niger Delta will actually be a major depositional section of the country in terms of the rising sea level. So the fringing repellent communities will be flooded with submerged and they are going to lose alluvial land for agriculture. And that will further complicate poor access to food and agricultural land. Of course the people of those communities are experiencing temperature surges and the synergy between increasing global temperature and heat generated by oil production flare stacks in the oil producing communities pose serious challenge to the people living in those impacted communities. Beyond flooding and temperature surges. Extractive community dwellers also suffer the loss of biodiversity, which of course will lead to the loss of traditional livelihood opportunities. And so that will further deepen poverty cycles. There is also going to be extensive erosion associated with flooding and then certainly there will be urban push. There will be rural push and urban pull that will make coastal cities like Portharcourt, Warri and Calabar to be overpopulated and that will further stress some sensitive wetlands in those cities because there will be that tendency of the rural people who are suffering the double impact of climate change and Environmental degradation to move into the cities in search of "greener pastures" that they will never find. So that would lead to overcrowding coastal cities in the Niger Delta. And of course, there would be housing challenge for those who move from local communities into the cities in order to surmount the problem of housing, since they don't have money to rent conventional apartment. They will move into wetland areas like mangrove areas to begin to build sediment to build their makeshift houses on them. And that will further stress biodiversity, stress the ecosystems that they are livelihoods will depend on. And so it's going to be a double tragedy.

Nnimmo: [00:16:57] You gave us a lot of food for thought about the impacts on communities other than agriculture. You spoke about poverty cycles being reinforced. You talk about the extensive erosion associated with flooding, displacement of population from coastal areas to cities. You did mention that they may be going to search for greener pastures, but it does sound like they would just be searching for safety, searching for higher grounds. Then you mention about wetlands being embedded or converted for temporary housing by the displaced persons and the related impacted ecosystems. Now, these are all very difficult and very dangerous issues to facing these coastal communities. Now, knowing that communities are facing displacement in Nigeria, not just from the coast but also from the north, caused by due to increased water stress and increased desertification. Do you think that government is aware of this problem problems? And if you think they're aware of the problem, what do you think government is doing to help communities overcome this kind of challenges?

Zabbey: [00:18:20] Well, I think everybody is aware. Everybody is aware of the problem. Either from the north to the south, east to the west. What we are lacking presently is a structured or systematic program that is robust and holistic in nature to take on board all the issues collectively and in a manner that is that is sustainable. So like you said, it is natural for humans, including animals, to move from one, one place to another, to move from their natural habitat. Or they are natural communities to where they think environmental conditions are more favorable or access to resources. So the the government is yet to put in place very robust, sustainable programs. And of course, there are piecemeal attempts from government even at the Federal, state and local government level to deal with these many environmental related issues. For example, the government have made very ambitious promise at COP26 and our nationally determined contribution is also very, very ambitious. The question is what are the mechanisms put in place to achieving all those commitments? So I think there is need for a paradigm shift. There is need for coordinated efforts between the state governments and the federal government. There is need for very sustainable mechanism that will actually deal with most of these issues. And again, there is also need to fund institutions that have very direct responsibility when it comes to managing environmental issues, for example. The Meteorological Agency needs to be adequately funded to be able to monitor weather patterns and give advisory information to the citizens and to other government agencies for planning purposes. And again, the issue of population taking stock of our population and understanding the migration pattern will also help in addressing some of the issues we have outlined.

Nnimmo: [00:21:40] We have had a lot to chew on today with regards to climate change impacts on extractive commodities. It's not really sounding good at all. We can see a lot of issues looming ahead. But I would like us to move into another track that could be a bit more promising. Now, talking about raising consciousness and awareness in these communities, is there any way this could be done starting with the children, maybe in eco clubs, in schools, or how else,  what can be done to build consciousness in the upcoming generation since they are the ones to face the climate impacts that we've been talking about.

Zabbey: [00:22:25] Because we raise a lot of children and the young ones, it is important to get them involved as early as possible so there will be need to start to reboot eco clubs or environmental clubs in schools as a strategic approach of promoting community led consciousness and not just the schools, there is also need to escalate such sensitisation platform, voluntary sensitization platform to informal settings. So by creating informal or afterschool environmental clubs. So in other words, if we are able to create both formal and informal clubs, there would be sustainable sensitisation or community education outreach that will raise the consciousness of the rural community dwellers with regard to climate change, with regard to best practices, environmental best practices And Informing them to be good stewards, environmental stewards that will contribute to conserving their surrounding conserving biodiversity, conserving ecosystems that their well-being depend on. So Why do I say there is need for not just the formal school clubs, but also the informal clubs? The reason is that sometimes Club members in the schools when they graduate and move out of school, they become redundant in terms of rendering that voluntary service, the voluntary services they were rendering when they were in school. So. If there are informal settings, informal platforms that when school club members graduate from school, they will be able to leverage to continue to render those voluntary environmental protection services in the communities such as sensitising members of the communities about issues that undermine the functionality of the environment. Issues relating to preserving subsisting biodiversity in those communities. Then it would be useful and it would increase consciousness in the communities. And again, apart from enlarging the community of Volunteers for Environmental Protection, it will also enable a kind of linkage between the the formal and informal schools, the school clubs. For peer learning and as well as for joint action efforts. And what that means is that the mare act of coupling the formal or informal clubs together to undertake peer learning and carry out joint action will lead to preserving Indigenous knowledge as well as promoting community adaptive innovations, which I think we really need indigenous knowledge in terms of adaptation, and then we also need community driven adaptive measures to the challenge of climate change.

Nnimmo: [00:26:42] Thank you so much Zabbey. You raised a lot of issues that will take us a whole day to dissect. And so I want to thank you for being with us today and for a very illuminating conversation. This is where we draw the curtain on today's episode. A big thank you to our listeners. We look forward to having you join us in our next episode. Have a very beautiful day.