Comparing climate change perceptions and meteorological data in rural West Africa to improve the understanding of household decisions to migrate

Florence De Longueville (), Pierre Ozer, François Gemenne, Sabine Henry, Ole Mertz and Jonas Ø. Nielsen
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Florence De Longueville: Department of Geography & Intitute of Life-Earth-Environment, University of Namur
Pierre Ozer: The Hugo Observatory, Department of Geography, University of Liège
François Gemenne: The Hugo Observatory, Department of Geography, University of Liège
Sabine Henry: Department of Geography & Intitute of Life-Earth-Environment, University of Namur
Ole Mertz: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen
Jonas Ø. Nielsen: Geography Department, Humboldt University zu Berlin

Climatic Change, 2020, vol. 160, issue 1, No 8, 123-141

Abstract: Abstract Largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, the West African populations could be severely impacted by climate change and variability. In this paper, we performed a literature review relating to perceptions of climate change and variability in West Africa, followed by an in-depth comparison between perceptions by rural dwellers of Burkina Faso and trends in meteorological data to discuss the importance of perceptions vis-à-vis climate trends in migration decision. Results showed that respondents perceived increasing temperature and worsening rainfall conditions over 1988–2007 matching with findings of previous studies but inconsistent with the trends observed in rainfall data. Given that climate change is recognized as a key driver of mobility on the one hand and the fact that climate change perceptions influence decision to migrate on the other hand, our results suggest to jointly include perceptions and climate data in future research on environmental migration in order to improve the understanding of household’s decision in response to climate change.

Keywords: Adaptation; Burkina Faso; Climate change; Migration; Perception (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02704-7

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