Indigenous Knowledge and Resilience in Climate Variability and Change: Chereponi District (Ghana) and Oti District (Togo)

Abstract

The Chereponi district (Northern Ghana) and Oti district (Northern Togo) along River Oti experience similar potential floods. Local people have indigenous knowledge which is very important in climate change adaption. This case study is interested in how the communities could build their resilience using indigenous knowledge. Data collection approaches included household interviews, focus group discussions and field observations. Secondary data were sourced from SRTM imagery and maps of study areas. The data were analysed with SPSS 16 and ArcGIS10.0 used for the maps. Normalized indicators for coping and adaptive capacities using indigenous knowledge were scaled and used in mapping. Both districts had 3 biophysical indicators for flood anticipation. Chereponi district has low resilience score from the standard deviation of the mean value of the indicators while in Oti district has moderate to high resilience score for both absorptive capacity and adaptive capacity. The local knowledge was more relevant in Chereponi district than in Oti district. The indigenous knowledge is limited in crop loss reduction, arrives late and affected by climate change. The good strategies can be transfer from Oti district to Chereponi district to build their resilience. Integration of indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation is critical for human security.