Mitigating Climate Change in Nigeria: African Traditional Religious Values in Focus

Abstract

Doi:10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n6p299 Abstract Climate change affects various countries in varying degree. Human activities have been observed to be a major contributor to climate change. Consequently, excessive heat, variation in rainfall pattern, rise in sea level, flooding, drought, erosion among others are been experienced in different countries of the world. In Nigeria climate change is obvious and the government has been battling to meet the challenges of mitigating this without much success. The search for more sustainable climate change mitigation strategies becomes necessary. The option of traditional religious practices and values in this regard has not been adequately explored. This is what the study sets out to achieve. Drawing data from literature and in-depth interviews, the study argues that some useful African traditional religious values and practices such as respect for the land divinity, maintenance of sacred groves and forest among others offer good and alternative strategies for climate change mitigation in Nigeria.