Rural Communities Perception of the Environment and Climate Change: A Case Study of the Malulo Community

Abstract

Mozambique is one of the countries in Africa whose survival base for the majority of the population is agriculture, with the majority practicing subsistence or family agriculture, which depends crucially on the weather for their income. The present work was carried out in the Malulo community, in Niassa Province, and aimed to assess the population's level of perception about the environment and climate change. To achieve the objectives outlined for this research, the following methods were used: questionnaire, interview, document analysis, and literature review. One hundred and fourteen (114) individuals from the six neighborhoods that divide the Malulo community were interview, the interviewees were select based on a probabilistic sample, of the stratified and random type, where the neighborhoods were used as strata and the choice of houses was random. The responses of the members of the communities were a group in a database and, according to the similarity, percentages were obtained and these presented in graphs. In a previous analysis of the questionnaire, it was found that 55.3 percent (%) of the individuals interviewed in the community know about climate change, having pointed out some problems, such as pollution, water waste, and deforestation. Thus, it can be inferred that farmers understanding the problems that plague the community where they live.