The Power of Resilience: Local Institutions, Local Experience, and Adaptation to Climate Change in Nigeria.

This study uses evidence from three rural agricultural communities in Nigeria to examine the role and relevance of local institutions and knowledge with regard to climate change adaptation. It argues that the formal climate change response framework has failed to incorporate local institutions as critical components of adaptation strategies, even though local institutions and people have age-old niches and decades of experience in confronting adverse weather events. The findings indicate that these communities have over the years developed critical norms around ensuring agricultural production and stemming the impacts of adverse climatic conditions without government support. The study underpins the resilience of these institutions in climate change adaptation and finds that, despite long bouts with gully erosion and flooding, these communities have over time developed practices and roles that ensure survival. Thus, these communities possess bastions of creativity and experience that may be useful in formal adaptation and resilience strategies to climate change in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]