ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

CASE STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN GHANA’SNORTHERN SAVANNAA REGIONSOVERVIEWGhana’s three northern administrative regions – Upper East, Upper West, and Northern – lie in the Sudanand Guinea savanna ecological zones. Roughly 23 percent of Ghana’s population resides inthese threeregions (GSS, 2005), and the vast majority resides in rural areas (84.3 percent percent in Upper East, 82.5percent inUpper West, 83.9 percent in Northern) (Ghana Districts, 2006). A high percentage of each region’spopulationdepends on agriculture for their main source of employment (67.2percent in Upper East, 73.4percent inUpper West, 70.9 percent in Northern) (GSS, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c). Agricultural-dependentpercentages rise in eachadministrative region if their most urbann districts are not factored in (i.e., BolgatangaMunicipal, Wa Municipal, and Tamale Metropolitan). The most important crops are millet, sorghum, maize,yams, rice, soy beans, cotton, groundnuts, beans, onions, and tomatoes. Mostt agricultural production israinfed, though some rice is under irrigation. Manyhouseholds also raise livestock. Agricultural productiontakes placelargely by smallholders. Mole National Park, Ghana’ss largest national park, is located in theGuinea Savanna in the Northern Region, covering 4,840 km 2 (OWGT, 2011) .As detailedd earlier in this report, thesee are Ghana’s most vulnerable regions toclimate change from bothanatural resource and a social standpoint. The SudanSavanna (roughly corresponding to theUpper EastRegion) suffers long-standing and very severe soil degradation; soil degradation in the Upper West andNorthern Regions (the Guinea Savanna) is moderate (See Chapter 6, Resource Vulnerability--Desertification).However, all three regions exhibit either high or very high vulnerability to desertification (with the exceptionof the southern portionof the Northern Region, south of 10°N latitude). It iss unclear howclimate changewill affect the process of desertification and the rate at which it occurs. The Sudan and Guinea Savannaecological zones also have the hottestt temperatures, and the second and thirdlowest rainfall levels (aftertheCoastal Savanna), in thecountry (see Chapter 3, Ghana’s Climate and Projected Changes). Rainfall is variable,as is characteristic of dry, subhumid drylands.Temperatures have beenincreasing more rapidly innorthern Ghana than elsewhere in the country, and areprojected to keep getting hotter. At the same time,annual decreases in total precipitation have beendocumented for the Guinea Savanna,and rainfall is projected too decrease in the future in both the SudanandGuinea Savanna zones (Chapter 3). The Upper East, Upper West, and Northern Regions have high socialvulnerability to climate change (Chapter 6) and thehighest poverty rates in Ghana (Nelsonand Agbey, 2008;Chapter 6) ).GHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ANDADAPTATIONASSESSMENT151