Using indigenous knowledge to addressing climate change in the Nigerian Sector of the lake chad basin

The problem of changing or declining sizes of the Lake Chad has, so far, been attributed to two key things: climate change and anthropogenesis as a result of High reliance of various irrigations projects on the lake (Ayuba and Dami, 2011). While climate change is blamed for the dwindling rainfalls hence recharge of the Lake, anthropogenesis is related to land use change from mainly farming activities and overgrazing leading to creation of arid-like conditions. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to establish how traditional or the so-called indigenous knowledge of the local populations have helped them lived through this changing climate; in other words how has the indigenous knowledge, defined as knowledge of the environment gathered by communities through years of interaction. The paper shows the vulnerabilities the indigenous people are exposed to as a result of high dependency of their livelihood on the natural environment. The Indigenous people have been challenged with the adverse impacts of climate for long period of time and have developed a wide array of coping strategies, and their traditional knowledge and practice provides an important basis for facing the even greater challenges of climate change, among the strategies they adapt to the effect of changing climate are Diversification of livelihood and Migrating.