ADOPTION OF AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED ADAPTATION (EbA) APPROACH IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE: IMPROVING LIVELIHOODS IN FRINGE COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WOROBONG SOUTH FOREST RESERVE

ABSTRACT

Extreme human activities couple with climate change have the potential to reduce the resilience of communities whose livelihoods depend on the forest ecosystem services. As a way of building resilience of society using the same resource also has the capacity to derive co-benefits for the forest ecosystem upon which livelihoods activities operate. To this end, the study sought to adopt the Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to identify Ecosystem services of the Worobong South Forest Reserve (WSFR), assess how these services have been impacted by climate variability or change, the vulnerability of fringe communities and proposed the appropriate EbA strategies needed to improve their livelihoods while enhancing the ecosystem. The study selected five communities around the Worobong South Forest Reserve (WSFR). Questionnaires were administered to 250 respondents, one focus group discussion was held, and three key informant interviews with officers of the Forestry Commission (FC), and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and a chief were also conducted. As part of the findings, the respondents perceived changes in rainfall and temperature which corroborated the time series data from GMeT, and these, probably may have affected crop production, supply of bush meat, freshwater, barks, leaves among others which they identified as ecosystem services. To build resilient livelihoods and ecosystem, locals suggested provision of irrigation facilities, enhanced agroforestry with a benefit sharing regime, change of planting time and enforcement of forest regulations. It is recommended that, capacity building efforts and effective stakeholder engagements should be a continuous exercise, while as part of the benefit-sharing scheme for agroforestry, participants can be given 15% of the 40% right to trees planted ahead of maturity as motivation and this will resolve the apprehension of waiting for several years before deriving the full benefits and this can sustain EbA initiatives.