From Abel Leonard, Lafia
The Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) has trained 45 community risk managers in Nasarawa towards mitigating the impact of climate change in the state.
This was disclosed by the team lead, Mr David Michael, during a two day training programme organised by GIFSEP supported by Oxfam to train community members on how and when to mitigate the impact climate change effects in their various communities in Naaarawa.
He said the programme is to basically to train community activists in the development of community climate risk Register adaptation planning.
“We are all aware of the issue of climate change in Nigeria and in Nasarawa state as well and there is urgent need for the communities to adapt to the change in climate and we believe that the adaptation approach should be a bottom-top approach,” he stated.
He further said the community are usually at the centre of it and that is why they are training them so as to get back to their communities and help develop what is called the community climate list register.
“They are the worse hit and they are bearing the brunt for it. They cannot continue to wait for government all the time. So there are little steps they themselves can take. And that is why we are carrying out this exercise,” he said.
“It is a disaster reduction tool which helps communities to prepare and avoid the climate change impact and how to cope with some of those impact and the good thing about those impact is the community is at the centre of it and the mitigation strategies are all within the communities,” he added.
“So they can do it themselves and the one they cannot do, Development partners and government can come in to assist, We are supporting communities here and hope that other states will follow suit.”
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He added that the changing weather for this year alone had led to flooding which has killed so many persons in some parts of the country, like jigawa, Lagos, and Nasarawa State, being an agricultural state, the farmers livelihood, income and food security are affected.
“It’s also part of awareness creation because once this process is done, the communities come together, learn about this issues and decide by themselves, what they can do. So they would have knowledge about how to adapt to the changes within their environment.”
Speaking also, Joseph Ibrahim, Project Officer for GIFSEP for the African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ) Project, said that the training was in continuation of AACJ Project being implemented by GIFSEP with support from Oxfam.
“Today’s workshop is to train people, community activists whom we have identified to be able to identify and develop climate list Registers in their communities.”
“We identified 45 of them and they are being trained.”
He further assured that the programme is not a political issue but simply a tool to help the community keep track of climate changes, which subsequently will be used to plan ahead better and avoid disaster arising from climate change.
In her presentation, Dr Elizabeth Jeiyol, Executive Director, Gender and Environmental Risks Reduction Initiative, called on communities and Nasarawa State Government to take deliberate steps to mitigate climate change effects
Interviewing one of the participant, Dr. Orfega Johnson, lecturer with Geography department, Benue State University, Markurdi, who said the workshop was interesting.
He said Issues of climate change are affecting everything hence need need for people to understand what is happening, so as to adapt strategies towards mitigate the situation.
“So it’s interesting to be here and I believe that what we have learnt will be passed through the community and the community will make good use of it, especially Interns of adaptability and responsiveness in relation to the risks coming with climate change,” he posited.