Indigenizing climate change adaptation education in a developing country context: what are the key drivers?

Summary Climate change has been shown to affect different aspects of society, with agriculture and the food system taking the highest hit. Several initiatives have been put in place to dampen such effects. Climate education could play an important role in the fight against climate change. Climate education ensures that farmers understand the anthropogenic causes of climate change and the principles underlying adaptation measures, hence informing adoption of sound adaptation measures. Although such theoretical underpinnings are clear, empirical evidence is lacking. We employ a multivariate probit model to empirically investigate the role of climate education in adoption of climate adaptation practices using data from Cameroon, whose humid tropical agroecology and forests are crucial to climate change mitigation in the Congo basin. Employing a linear model, we similarly evaluate the role of climate education on farm incomes as well as the role of perception of climate change. Our results show that climate education influences adoption of adaptation measures, especially simple and cost-effective measures. However, climate education does not affect farm income, neither does farmers’ perception of climate change. These results suggest that indigenous farmers may be more willing to choose a simple low-cost adaptation measure. The generated results are crucial for influencing climate change policy related to awareness building, education, and training for optimal adaptation efforts.