ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

current capacity will likely diminish over time as precipitation within the Volta basin declines, andneighboring countries expand their extractions for drinking water and irrigation. Ghana is developing oil andgas that will provide new energy sources, but they will have to be developed – for example, by capturing thenatural gas from the Jubilee Field and using it to power an energy plant. Perhaps the greatest opportunity forGhana is to develop advanced biofuels or at least to use advanced conversion technology along withcomparative advantages in growing woody feedstocks. Such a policy should, however, be integrated withagricultural and other uses of land and is predicated upon raising the productivity of food crops to their fullpotential under intensification.Woody biomass for bioenergy already provides a large share of the energy needs of the average Ghanaian,specifically fuelwood for cooking. Currently, this use is inefficient (open fires, inefficient charcoal productionmethods) and often damaging to the environment. In addition to programs to increase fuelwood availability,improve cookstove efficiency, and improve charcoal production, the entire forestry sector of Ghana needs tobe transformed. One starting point would be the transformation of the Forestry Commission (FC) into a landmanagement and stewardship agency. Thus, a transformed FC would no longer be focused simply ongenerating income from timber concessions and permitting fees. Rather, the FC would be responsible forconserving the remaining high forests, restoring degraded forest reserves and wetland forests, and providingtechnical assistance to communities in developing community forests and fuelwood plantations. In addition,the wood industry in Ghana needs to be rationalized to remove subsidies that maintain an inefficient exportmarket, and to improve provision to meet domestic lumber needs. Improved forest management will alsomaximize opportunities to capture payments for carbon and other ecosystem services.Ghana’s mid-term development strategy and goal of obtaining MIC status by 2015 depends heavily uponimprovements in the agricultural sector. Although we have suggested some interventions in the agriculturalsector, one change that requires multiple and continuing interventions is the need to overhaul agriculturalresearch and extension in Ghana. The GoG does not provide adequate support for applied agriculturalresearch internally, which causes research scientists to seek funding from outside sources. This usually meansthat agricultural research focuses more on basic research than is needed in Ghana, leading to the charge that itis irrelevant. Extension is also underfunded and is removed from the needs of the smallholder. Without astrong applied research focus on issues that matter to the smallholder, delivered by extension agents inaffordable technology packages, the existing agricultural research and extension infrastructure will notcontribute to meeting the needs of the Ghanaian farmer.Finally, climate change vulnerability and adaptation analyses need to be conducted at the community andhousehold levels in the different regions. Because variability and changes in climate will be felt locally, and amyriad of possible adaptation responses exist, vulnerability analysis needs to be situated in a local spatialcontext. USAID Ghana, working with donor partners, GoG agencies, NGOs, and CSOs should developvulnerability and adaptation analyses as part of the project planning and design phase and require that theresults be used to modify projects before embarking on them.16 GHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION ASSESSMENT