Farm Radio collaborator talks to international business leaders about climate change
Date Posted: June 16th, 2008
In an air-conditioned conference room in Montreal, Canada, images of climate change in extreme locations – the Sahel desert and Arctic Circle – became vividly clear. Participants in The International Economic Forum of the Americas saw and heard how farmers in Nigeria plant seeds in drylands, no longer able to predict when the rainy season will come. They also heard how many experienced hunters in northern Alaska have lost their lives as a result of unexpected changes to ice conditions.
Salamatu Garba, Coordinator for the Women Farmers’ Advancement Network (WOFAN) in Nigeria, spoke (via audio recording) of the challenges faced by women in the Sahel. Though farmers have been coaxing crops from the drylands for generations, in recent years, the rains have become unpredictable, and sometimes arrive as a series of storms that flood the land. Ms. Garba explained that these conditions are especially challenging for women, as both farmers and traditional water gatherers.
Ms. Garba’s organization is collaborating with the African Radio Drama Association, Farm Radio International, and the International Development Research Centre, to create a radio drama that weaves practical information on adaptation techniques into a scintillating soap opera. Tips on using quick-germinating and fast-maturing grain varieties, methods to preserve and rehabilitate soil, and techniques for harvesting and storing water, will be included in the 26-part drama.
In northern Alaska, rising temperatures are creating different challenges, requiring very different adaptation techniques. Patricia Cochran, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, explained that some 85 per cent of communities are built on the coast, and hundreds will have to be re-located as the sea level rises. Ms. Cochran emphasized that, while the effects of climate change are devastating to people living in extreme locations, these people are experts at adaptation, and their input will be vital to developing coping methods. John M.R. Stone, Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, also spoke to the group, stressing the importance of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are the cause of these disruptive climate changes.
For more information on the climate change radio drama, please see “‘Climate Change Adaptation Goes Soap!’ – Workshop for new radio drama held in Abuja,” from FRW Issue 5.
