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.