To what extent can climate change adaptation be incorporated into counterterrorism strategies in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) region? As part of the Lake Chad region counterterrorism strategy, we explore how climate change adaptation can be used to prevent local population recruitment into violent extremism. Over the years, the Lake Chad Basin has been entangled with complex and multivariant challenges, such as climate threats, jihadist extremism, and intercommunal and religious conflicts. These variabilities have adversely affected people’s livelihoods and security. This paper provides a complementary approach to counter-terrorism operations in the Lake Chad Basin region. We argue that local vulnerabilities create a favourable climate for jihadist extremist recruitment of vulnerable local populations. In response to climate change, it suggests adaptation measures as a non-kinetic counter-terrorism measure to help mitigate the recruitment of vulnerable populations into violent extremism. Non-kinetic adaptation measures, in a relative sense, employ a non-military approach to minimise the vulnerability and recruitment of the local population that has experienced climate-related shocks into jihadist enclaves. This approach, which has received little attention in the literature, can be integrated into counter-terrorism operations to prevent the recruitment of vulnerable communities whose livelihoods have been destroyed by climate fragility, violent extremism, and forced displacement nexus in the Lake Chad Basin. The paper concludes by advocating adequate mobilisation of resources to promote adaptation strategies and their implementation.