Abstract

This paper examines household perception of, and response to, climate change issues in the peri-urban areas of an ancient African city, Ibadan, Nigeria. It employs: structured questionnaire administered to randomly selected 300 respondents to elicit required primary information and; secondary data on climatic parameters between 1996 and 2007 for Ibadan. Results show a high level of awareness of climate change issues. Observed climatic parameters show an indication of local warming, featuring decreasing rainfall and increasing temperature. All the respondents linked deforestation, bush burning and population increase with climate change and also identified fluctuating days of rainfall, shrinking sizes of water bodies, water shortage and loss of soil fertility among evidences of climate change. Response pattern is generally weak including: long trek in search of water and low scale irrigation. Suggestions for sustainable adaptive measures include: incorporation of environmental education as a component of agricultural extension service and into the school curricula.