Climate Variability, Land Cover Changes and Livelihoods of Communities on the Fringes of Bobiri Forest Reserve, Ghana

Frank Baffour-Ata,Elias Nkiaka,Philip Antwi-Agyei

doi:10.3390/f12030278

Frank Baffour-Ata, Elias Nkiaka + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/f12030278

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Abstract

Climate variability coupled with land use and land cover changes have resulted in significant changes in forest reserves in Ghana with major implications for rural livelihoods. Understanding the link between climate variability, land use and land cover changes and rural livelihoods is key for decision-making, especially regarding sustainable management of forest resources, monitoring of ecosystems and related livelihoods. The study determined the extent to which climate variability drives land cover changes in the Bobiri forest reserve, Ghana. Landsat images from 1986, 2003, 2010 and 2014 were used to evaluate land cover changes of the Bobiri forest reserve in Ghana. Participatory research approaches including household questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted in four fringe communities of the Bobiri forest reserve. Findings showed that local people perceived changes in rainfall and temperature patterns over the past years. Historical rainfall and temperature data for the study area showed increased variability in rainfall and an increasing temperature trend, which are consistent with the perception of the study respondents. Analysis of land cover satellite images showed that there has been significant transformation of closed forest to open forest and non-forest land cover types over the 28-year period (1986–2014), with an overall kappa statistic of 0.77. Between 2003 and 2014, closed forest decreased by 15.6% but settlement/bare ground and crop land increased marginally by 1.5% and 0.9%, respectively. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews revealed that increased land cover changes in the Bobiri forest reserve could partly be attributed to erratic rainfall patterns. Other factors such as logging and population growth were reported to be factors driving land cover changes. The study concluded that the Bobiri forest reserve has witnessed significant land cover changes and recommended that alternative livelihood sources should be provided to reduce the direct dependency of fringe communities on the forest for livelihood and firewood.

Highlights

Climate change and variability have received considerable research attention due to their adverse impacts on livelihoods especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where adaptive capacity is low [1]
Some respondents perceived other causes, such as bushfires, natural occurrences, punishment by God and sign of the end of the world. These findings are in line with that of Codjoe et al [45], who reported that the majority of the respondents in six districts in Ghana perceived the causes of climate change as deforestation, indiscriminate setting of fire to bushes before farming, God’s plan to signify the end of time, farming activities and illegal mining
This study investigated the extent to which climate variability drives livelihoods and land cover changes of fringe communities of Bobiri forest reserve, Ghana

Summary

Introduction

Climate change and variability have received considerable research attention due to their adverse impacts on livelihoods especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where adaptive capacity is low [1]. Some of the effects include: observed shifts in vegetation distribution and increased mortality of trees as a result of heat and droughts in forests worldwide [5,6]. These effects will have significant repercussions on food security and related livelihoods in SSA, in Ghana where agriculture is predominantly rain-fed [7,8,9]

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