PEASANT PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATIC DISTURBANCES IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF SANTCHOU IN WEST REGION OF CAMEROON

The ethno-meteorological perceptions of climate change by peasants in the Municipality of Santchou constitute local knowledge based on lived experiences to explain and understand recent climate change. This peasant knowledge on climate change was capitalized using socio-anthropological investigation tools and techniques (interview and questionnaire) on 309 households sampled randomly, coupled with the analysis of climatological data (average annual temperatures and precipitation). Descriptive statistics and Multiple Correspondence Analysis were carried out on the responses obtained from the farmers. The results show that the peasants of the Municipality of Santchou perceive the climatic disturbances differently according to the age groups and the level of education; on the other hand, no significant difference is recorded according to sex and geographical position. At the end of the analysis, it emerges that mainly, almost all the peasants, of which 96 per cent (all categories of peasants) are convinced of the increase in average annual temperatures, 92 per cent for the recurrence of floods, 89 per cent for the poor temporal distribution of the rains, 84 per cent for the disappearance of rains out of season and 75 per cent for the drop in agricultural yields. It is, therefore, that the peasants of the Municipality of Santchou clearly perceive the climatic disturbances in their locality, and that these perceptions depend much more on the age (seniority in the locality) and the degree of understanding of the phenomenon than on the gender and geographical position, with confirmation of the analysis of climatic data, except the perception on the amount of rain which according to them has decreased while not. These perceptions, compared to observable conventional data, can help analyze the real impacts of climate change in the Municipality of Santchou.