ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

households depend on a combination of farm and nonfarm activities (Hesselberg and Yaro, 2006). Non-farmactivities help people cope with temporary adversity in the agricultural sector and also represent a longer-termadaptation strategy when other options fail (Scoones, 2008). In northern Ghana, these activities includehunting, fishing, non-timber forest product harvesting, local manufacturing, charcoal production, petty trade,and wage labor (Dietz et al., 2004; Hesselburg and Yarro, 2006; Whitehead, 2002). Non-farm income earningactivities are especially important during the dry season.Climate change may pose problems for non-farm activities that are natural resource-based. For example,declines in tree cover will make it more difficult to engage in charcoal production, the sale of firewood, andthe gathering and manufacture of products from some non-timber forest species such as dawadawa and sheanuts, despite the protected status of these trees in many communities. Nevertheless, non-farm activities arelikely to play an increasingly important role in household livelihoods in the future because they offeropportunities for diversification when agriculture becomes more risky.MIGRATIONA third common livelihood strategy in the northern savanna zones is migration, often by select householdmembers who send remittances back home. Migration includes seasonal, temporary and permanentmovement between places, whether short or long distance. Migration from Ghana’s three northern regions toits southern regions has been ongoing since the turn of the 20 th century, when British colonial rule wasintroduced (Van der Geest, 2008). Between 1984 and 2000, 18.4 percent of the people who were born innorthern Ghana migrated south with the Upper West Region exhibiting the highest rates of outmigration(26.9 percent) followed by Upper East (22.2 percent). The main destinations of migrants from the north arethe cities of Kumasi and Accra, the cocoa belt frontier in the northern part of the Western Region, and theproductive farming areas to the south (Van der Geest, 2008). Those who have skills, such as mechanics,carpenters and teachers typically migrate to urban areas; unskilled farmers typically migrate south to placeswhere farming is more favorable. In the Upper East Region, migration is more common from areas wherepopulation density is high, there are land shortages, and opportunities for irrigated agriculture are lacking(Hesselburg and Yaro, 2006). Key factors causing migrant farmers living in the Upper West Region to moveto the Brong-Ahafo Region were land scarcity, reduced soil fertility resulting in low agricultural productivity,and the abundance and fertility of land in the Forest-Savanna Transition Zone, where rainfall and farmingconditions are better than in the north and there are more opportunities to earn income (Van der Geest,2008). Climate was also a factor that led to outmigration from Upper West.Notably, Ghana’s northern savanna regions, particularly the Upper East, are also receiving areas for migrants.Fulani herders from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria began moving into northern Ghana early in the20 th century (Tonah, 2006). At first, their movements were seasonal, took place mainly during the dry season,and were confined to the Upper East Region. They were drawn by relatively low populations of humans andanimals and lush vegetation. Drought and growing difficulty obtaining pasture and water at home, particularlyduring the dry season, caused the number of migrants to rise and to settle more permanently in northeasternGhana. By the 1960s, the Fulani population in northern Ghana had grown considerably. Competition overresources became severe leading to conflicts between herders and farmers. This caused many Fulani migrantsto move farther south, especially to Ghana’s Lake Volta Basin. Some worked as hired herders for farmers andtraders, and others simply moved wholesale with their own cattle herds to pursue pastoral livelihoods.Although economic relations between Fulani herders and farmers can be symbiotic and mutuallyadvantageous, they can also be contentious. The main cause of herder-farmer conflict is crop destruction bycattle (Tonah, 2006). The reasons for this conflict are many and complex (see Moritz, 2010; Tonah 2006) withthe result that conflict between herders and farmers in recent years has become more violent. If climatechange results in greater aridity in the region, it is likely to intensify this conflict as more herders are displacedfrom the even drier Sahelian region, migrate south into Ghana, and settle permanently and as resident farmersexpand dry season farming in river valleys, river bottoms, and wetland areas where cattle concentrate duringthe dry season. Given current conditions of the savanna zones in Burkina Faso and northernmost Ghana, thismay occur regardless of climate change effects, short of increase in rainfall.154 GHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION ASSESSMENT