Climate Change and Fisheries: Perspectives from Small-Scale Fishing Community in Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The present study focused on impact of climate change on livelihood of Ganyingbo fishing community in Badagry, from June to September, 2020. Data were collected through administration of 58 structured questionnaires to artisanal fishermen while test of significance of research hypotheses was conducted using chi-square and t-test at 95% confidence interval. The results showed that the fisher folks composed of 83% male and 17% female. The most common age group among fishermen was 30-39 years (27.58%) and 57% do not have other job apart from fishing. Majority (37.93%) of the fishermen did not attain beyond secondary school education while only 3.45% had tertiary education. Calculated coefficient of marketing efficiency indicated that 54.8% and 72.26% of their sales revenue were taken up by costs before and after the effect of climate change respectively. Total expenditure of fishermen increased by 24.9% while income decreased by 5.26%. The t-test analysis indicated significant (p<0.05) difference between the total cost associated with fishing in Ganyingbo before (N17850.0± 2015.22) and after (N22300.0 ± 6297.40) effect of the climate change. Fishermen (87.93%) believed that adopting coping strategies to mitigate the climate change is germane for artisanal fisheries systems. A significant (p<0.05) difference was observed (X2 = 30.56: 9.49) between expected and observed perspective of fishermen based on viability of artisanal fisheries in Ganyingbo community. As noted in this study, fishing business in Ganyingbo is still viable however more effective mitigation measures are required to ensure its sustainability.