Local perceptions and regional climate trends on the central plateau of Burkina Faso

Due to devastating droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, climatic and environmental change in the West African Sahel has attracted a great deal of scientific research. While many of these studies documented a long-term trend of declining rainfall, analyses conducted in the last few years suggest that a `recovery' is underway. Drawing on ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and participant observation in two Provinces of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso, we elicited local perspectives on these rainfall trends from the people who are most directly affected, namely local farmers. Fieldwork revealed that farmers in the research sites perceive that both overall seasonal rainfall and the number of `big rains' during the rainy season have decreased over the last 30 years. We then tested these perceptions against rainfall records from nearby meteorological stations and found them to be corroborated. This paper illustrates how farmers of the Central Plateau now view drought as `normal', having incorporated drought-mitigation adaptations into their agricultural systems. Our case study highlights the need for ground truthing scientific analyses and assessing livelihood implications at the local level. It also advocates for sustained institutional support for rural communities, to increase their ability to adapt to climate change. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.