ASSESSING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND THE RESILIENCE OF HUMAN LIVELIHOODS IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN GHANA: A CASE STUDY OF COMMUNITIES LIVING AROUND THE SONGOR LAGOON

ABSTRACT Climate Change has been globally recognized as a multi-scalar socio-economic and environmental problem. Its effects are multidimensional and affect ecosystems, rain-fed agriculture, forestry resources, water, and health. Developing countries, particularly those whose livelihoods are tied to climate-sensitive sectors coupled with low resilience and high vulnerability, will suffer the worst of this menace. Despite these daunting realities confronting developing countries and local communities, research in understanding the gravity of the situation and strategies for effective adaptation remain scarce. It is against this background that this study was undertaken with the objectives of (i) assessing the key ecosystem services associated with the Songor lagoon and the potential beneficiaries; (ii) assessing the changing trend of ecosystem services and the impacts of climatic variability on these services; (iii) evaluating the peoples’ level of awareness, perceptions, knowledge, and understanding of climate variability and its impact on ecosystem services and their livelihoods; (iv) to identify the alternative livelihood and coping strategies of the communities in response to changes of ecosystem services for localized adaptation. In order to achieve these objectives, the study adopted mixed method approaches with the use of semi-a structured questionnaire, interviews, and documentations. Both secondary and primary data on climatic variability (temperature and rainfall) were collected for analyses. For the purposes of analysis, a binary logistic model was used to model the determinants on the resilience of ecosystem services and human livelihoods. A multiple linear regression model was also employed to assess the impacts of climatic variability on ecosystem services (salt yield). Overall, the results have shown that, among the other regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services obtained from the lagoon, the dominant one is the provisioning services (salt production). Results from the analyses confirmed that ecosystem services have declined considerably over the years and this has affected respondents’ livelihoods. Climate variability was also observed to occur in the study area with increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall patterns over the past 30 years. The variability in temperature and rainfall were therefore noted to have both negative and positive implications on ecosystem services, particularly salt yield. A 10C increase in temperature was noted to result in a decrease of 0.488 Mt of salt and increasing that of rainfall by 1mm was also noted to result in a 0.142 Mt of salt increase yield. From the study, both temperature and rainfall changes were shown to affect salt yield by 51.4 %, leaving the rest of the influence to other confounding factors (R2 =0.514; P C value=0.15). Respondents demonstrated an appreciable level of awareness, knowledge and understanding about the meaning, causes, evidence of and the strategies for mitigating climate change although their perceptions were not empirically ascertained and may raise concerns. Several strategies were identified by the respondents for adaptation to climate change impacts and changes in key ecosystem services. These included rainwater harvesting, diversification of livelihoods sources, shifting planting times to adjust to seasonal variations of rainfall availability and adoption of drought and heat tolerant crop varieties by farmers for improved crop yield. These findings suggest that, for the sustainability of the salt industry of the Songor Lagoon and its continued support for livelihoods and resilience of the communities, the government must take an interest in the sector and invest massively in infrastructure and expertise development. This will help boost production and handle the challenges as well as harness the opportunities that climate change presents to the sector. It is also recommended that continual monitoring and assessment of these services be carried out for improvement to build on the lessons learned and this calls for further research. These must, however, be coupled with the engagement of all the relevant stakeholders and taking into consideration the social, cultural and demographical specificities of the people.