Faith Communities and Environmental Degradation in Northeast Nigeria

Abstract

© Common Ground, Muazu Shehu, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, All Rights Reserved. Few empirical studies have examined understandings of environmental change within faith communities. This is the case even in regions suffering severely from environmental change like Northeast Nigeria. In highly religious societies such as Nigeria, an appreciation of perceptions and modes of adaptation to change within faith communities is crucial to both understanding the religion-environment connection and as a basis to generate ideas for mitigating environmental degradation. Leaders of Christian and Muslim congregations in Northeast Nigeria were interviewed to explore their interpretations of how faith communities understand environmental change and degradation. Analysis of the interviews reveals that participants offer a wide range of understandings around environmental change. While some attribute change to human activities, others interpret it as 'natural' occurrence or outcome, defining it either as God’s way of punishing humans for their wrong deeds or as a fulfillment of 'end times' prophecies. Ways of responding to environmental change within these faith communities are found to range from religious rituals such as special prayers, to active management practices such as tree planting. Our findings suggest that religion plays a more important role in shaping views on problems in 'Sufi' Muslim communities than in Christian and 'Salafi' Muslim communities. The implications of these findings for future research and policy are discussed.