ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

from friends and family to get by during an economic slump or redirecting money from other areas of thehousehold finances to temporarily cover the loss of fishing income (van der Geest, 2004). These strategiestend to be erosive because they threaten future resilience by depleting overall household resources to a pointfrom which they might not recover if income reduction persists for more than one season.Many of the coping strategies employed on the coast could be considered borderline adaptations because theyhave been practiced over a long period of time. That said, to combat declining catch sizes, artisanal fishermenhave transitioned to semi-industrial outfits or simply increased the time they spend at sea, added engines totheir canoes to travel greater distances, switched to nets with much smaller weaves to capture smaller fish,and incorporated the use of lights, dynamite, or poison into their practices (CRC, 2010; Impraim, 2010).Semi-industrial, industrial, and canoe fishers have coped with declining fisheries by adopting light fishing,extending their range, illegally moving into the inward exclusion zone, or fishing off the shore of neighboringcountries (CRC, 2010, Personal Interview). All three fleets are believed to under-report their catch, whichenables them to pay less of a remittance to the lead fisherman 6 (CRC, 2010; Impraim, 2010). Nearly all ofthese coping strategies can be considered erosive because they harm the health of the resource in the future.The Government of Ghana has invested in a more coordinated short-term coping strategy, known as the Pre-Mix Program. The Pre-Mix Program is a fuels subsidy program by which artisanal fishermen are providedwith fuel for use in their two-stroke engines. The program has been controversial and riddled with corruptionand mis-management, but many artisanal fishermen rely on the low-cost fuel provided through the program(CRC 2010). Although not completely clear, this practice may also be erosive by subsidizing an already overcapitalizedor at least over-sized fleet relative to the sustainable fishery resource.In addition to these short-sighted coping mechanisms, individuals on the coast have also started adoptinglonger term livelihood adaptations. Most livelihood adaptations revolve around livelihood diversification,expansion, or improved practices. Communities and households have invested in under-developed industries,like tourism, as an alternative to fishing-dependent livelihoods. An unseen benefit of this particular adaptationis that many of the new tourism-based businesses have the potential to become partners in conservationefforts that benefit the fisheries. A few examples of this are occurring already. The Green Turtle Lodge, abeach front eco-tourism lodge in the Western Region, has partnered with local and international conservationorganizations to protect nesting sea turtles that their visitors come to see (CRC, 2010). Local lead fishermenhave worked to instill a land ethic within their villages by discouraging destructive practices and making betterattempts to monitor catches. The success of chief fishermen depends largely on their status and respectwithin the community, and while effective over a small area, chief fishermen do not have the authority orreach to influence change across the fisheries as a whole unless they work with collaborating partners (CRC,2010). The Ghanaian government with funding from the World Bank experimented with Community-BasedFisheries Management Committees, hoping to strengthen the influence of local community leaders bytransferring management responsibilities to local committees. The program suffered from a lack of fundingand has been discontinued (Braihmah, 2009). However, the Coastal Resource Center (CRC), based inSekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, has resumed this movement of community involvement in fisheriesmanagement. The CRC is working today to develop a unified civil society platform with the ability toinfluence change in the overall governance of the artisinal fishery (CRC, 2010). Their efforts include chieffishermen, konkohene (leader of the fish sellers), traditional chiefs, and other community leaders with thepotential to influence local behaviors.Other adaptive measures are less overarching. Working to improve or diversify their existing livelihoods,fishermen have added crew members and shifted towards larger canoes, thereby increasing the capacity oftheir operations. Fish sellers have delved into better smoking techniques to eliminate inefficiencies byreducing waste. Communities have invested in cold storage facilities, enabling better storage and marketing6 At the community level, fishing is managed through lead fishermen. A lead fisherman was traditionally a particularly skilled fishermansanctioned by the chief to regulate the activities of fishermen throughout the village, generally by assigning individuals days of the week onwhich they were permitted to fish. Today these positions are inherited father to son, although their function remains the same (Impraim,2011).GHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION ASSESSMENT 149