Assessment of Climate Change Variables Impact on Fishing Livelihood of some Fishing Communities in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the impact of climate change variables on fishing livelihood in some communities in Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. It utilized a well-structured questionnaire that was distributed among the 306 respondents randomly to inquire into the demographic, fishing activities, perception on climate change and adaptation mechanism of respondents to climate change. It was found that 86.3% of the respondents were familiar with the climate change variables such as rainfall, windfall, drought etc. Also, 92.5%, and 85.8% of the respondents claimed to know that erratic rainfall and temperature respectively is due to climate change and affected their fishing activities. The perception of the respondents on the climate variability impact on the fishing activities has nothing to do with their gender at t (238) = -1.440, p = 0.151. A significant correlation was discovered in the perceived climate change variables and their effect on the fishing activities of the fisher folks in each of the communities (r =0.274; p<0.05). Perceived oscillation of unusual dry and wet season in the past few years was significant, c2 (1, N = 240) = 86.40, p<0.05 with the fishing activities and income. Lastly, Employment status, annual income and education share a non-significant relationship [F (2, 240) = 0.171, p=0.843] to swift adaptation to climate variable effects among the fish farmers. In conclusion, reduction in the fishing activities livelihood and income of the fisher folks in the communities has been ascribed to the effect of climate change variables.