Climate change and forest dependent livelihoods; vulnerabilities and impacts

2011

English

Forest ecosystem services play key roles in providing environmental and ecological functions to support livelihood of millions of people globally. Conversely, climate change characterized by several consequences that affect livelihoods in many parts of the world will continue to adversely affect socio-economic sectors including forest resources. This study was undertaken to assess the impact of climate change on forest dependent communities in different ecological zones in Ghana. It also assessed the socioeconomic vulnerability levels in the wake of a changing climate. Primary data was gathered and supplemented with secondary data from relevant literature. Forest resources were generally perceived by forest dependent communities as declining. Although access to information on climate change was fairly low, the level of awareness to climate change issues was moderately high in the four ecological zones selected for the study. While the effect of climate change impact was perceived to have contributed to decline forest resource, anthropogenic factors such as deforestation, extensive agriculture, exploitation of resources due to high population growth, bush burning were perceived as the main causes of declining forest resources. Climate Change was perceived to have impacted on the livelihood of forest dependent communities by way of prolonged drought, erratic rainfall pattern, and variability in rainfall intensity. These trends have consequently led to drying of rivers and streams, shift in cropping season, reduced yield, frequent flooding and extreme warm conditions among others. Use of irrigation, crop diversification, household income diversification through alternative livelihood activities and increase in size of cultivated farms are among the different measures being adopted by communities to cope with the effects of climate change. Using socio-economic indicators, the transition zone is ranked the most vulnerable to climate change impact among the four ecological zones selected for the study. The zone has relatively higher literacy level, and higher dependency on rain-fed agriculture, limited diversified income sources and moderate access to climate change information. In an attempt to help forest dependent communities cope with climate change impacts, fundamental issues such as illiteracy, options of non-climate dependent alternative livelihood activities, access to climate change information, sustainable agricultural ii practices and sustainable forest resources management are key areas for initial intervention.

Samar, S. B.; Dumenu, W. K.; Obeng, E. A.