Lake drying led to new adaptive behaviours based on seasonality , as well as linking to opportunism supported by climate change impacts. For example, during times of lake flooding, new opportunities for fishing opened for people that were otherwise operating primarily as pastoral or agricultural households. However, these kinds of livelihood shifts remain largely reactive and can bring negative as well as positive impacts. In the Lake Chad case, it resulted in social clashes between different groups, while in other examples from Tanzania, livelihood shifts towards extensification of farming led to deforestation , which could constitute a maladaptive shift. Such findings have important implications for the types of government and institutional support that can enable livelihood shifts and highlight the need to consider trade-offs for climate change mitigation, as well as with other adaptation options .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report