Climate Change Awareness and Sustainable Tourism Development in Rural Communities: A Moderated-Mediation Model from Nigeria (Published)
Rural tourism destinations are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, yet limited empirical research explains how community-level climate awareness translates into sustainable tourism development outcomes. Drawing on Sustainable Development Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Community-Based Tourism Theory, and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study develops and tests a moderated mediation model linking climate change awareness to sustainable tourism development through environmental attitudes, with government support as a moderator. Using survey data from 368 rural tourism stakeholders in Nigeria and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), results indicate that climate change awareness significantly predicts sustainable tourism development. Environmental attitude partially mediates this relationship, while government support strengthens the awareness–sustainability link. The model explains 46% of the variance in sustainable tourism development. The study advances climate-resilient tourism theory by integrating cognitive, psychological, and institutional dimensions and offers actionable policy implications for rural destinations in emerging economies.
Keywords: Climate change awareness, Nigeria, PLS-SEM, Rural tourism, environmental attitude, government support, sustainable tourism development
Climate Change Implications for Agricultural Sustainability in Enugu in the Guinea Savanna Eco-Climatic Zone of Southeastern Nigeria: Input from Climate Change Proxies (Published)
Climate change poses debilitating effects for agriculture and food security in low technology countries such as sub-Saharan Africa. The trends and variations of some climatic variables that influence agriculture were analysed using integrated statistical techniques. The aim is to examine the possible effects of climate change on agricultural sustainability in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria using lessons drawn from trend analysis of historical time series of meteorological variables in monthly time step in the area. The area whose economy is largely agrigarian has continued to witness incidence of poor crop productivity. Significant long-term trends were identified in some of the variables and non-significant trends in others. Inferences were made with considerable support of evidence and high degree of confidence. The climate of the area is changing in a manner that concern for agricultural sustainability is on the front burner of the long-term resulting consequences. The need for pre-season and on-season climate information dissemination system is advocated to provide timely and accurate agro-meteorological information
Keywords: Climate Change, Enugu, Nigeria, Trends, agricultural sustainability, climatic parameters, statistical techniques