Ghana is located in the tropics and 5% of her land surface is covered with fresh water bodies. Her ecological zones are made up of green forest belts, transitional and savannah zones capable of growing any kind of crops. Nearly fifty percent of African continent is covered by drylands spreading entirely or partially over 15 countries into west- central Africa and another 15 countries of the East- Southern Africa. Sub-Sahara Africa is an area of fast population explosions. Rapid urban development in West Africa has created large human concentrations with high demand for natural resources. It is true because low levels of agricultural activities and productivity in the Sub Sahara Africa prevent many of the population from escaping from poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
It’s important that Ghana develops her rapidly declining forests across the ten regions. A deeper reflection on the importance of forests and trees brought to mind the followings-
· Trees reduces Greenhouse gases and releases oxygen for our well being
· Provides scholars the opportunities to studies and research into medicine, food and life
· Protects the soil cover, increases soil moisture and water tables
· Increases food productivity, medicines and games
· Provide foreign exchange through sales of timber & wood products
· Protects soil microbial activities and soil lives
· Provides alternative livelihoods, jobs and wealth through agriculture and forestry
· Protects the ozone layers and improves weather or climatic patterns
African depending on rain fed agriculture: Rain fed agriculture is dominated in the region, and supports many rural livelihoods. Rain fed is scare and unreliable in drylands and long dry spell threatens crop production. Africa is the only region in the world in which the average per capita food production has been consistently falling for the last 40 years, with consequence as a high level pervert particularly in rural areas. Food security is defined as access by all manner of people at all times to food needed for a healthy and active life. It gives the four main component of food security as food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and food system stability, which is linked to affordability. The major thrust of the drive towards food security is to bring about a significant increase in agricultural production in a sustainable way and to achieve a substantial improvement in people’s entitlement to nutritionally sound and adequate food as well as culturally appropriate food supplies.
On paper, Africa could be transformed from food deficit continent to one of the world’s major exporters of agricultural produce. Climate change jeopardizes the progress made by Africa to date due to substantial diversion of resources required to fund adaptation initiatives. Estimates predict economic losses due to climate change to be as high as 14% GDP if adaptation measures fail to be implemented. The world fishery center reports that rising water temperature may reduce the upwelling of food supplies that fish in the upper layers depends on and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase the acidity of water bodies which would adversely affect shellfish and the coral reefs.
Darsfoundation collaborative Initiative for Tropical Forest Biodiversity is to enhance biodiversity conservation in tropical forests with the direct participation of local stakeholders, addressing the main drivers of biodiversity loss in tropical forests: deforestation and forest degradation. Darsfoundation aims to achieve these key outputs- Enhanced local capacity for biodiversity conservation in production forests and for the rehabilitation of degraded and secondary forests. Improved conservation and management of protected areas, especially in association with buffering protected areas, and transboundary conservation. Safeguarding tropical forest biodiversity in forestry interventions, including in CDM & REDD+ related projects, and Improved welfare of local communities and indigenous groups through biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
A closer link between agriculture, forestry and other land uses in Sub Sahara Africa offers opportunities for integrating adaptation and mitigation response to climate change without compromising food security. The organic farming practices of soil nutrient management, multiple cropping and agro-forestry practices being promoted with small farm holders to adapt to climate change can become avenue for earning mitigation credit and revenue for improving agriculture while avoiding deforestation. In the regards to land uses, agro-forestry practice is very relevant as an approach to sequestering carbon on a large scale and over a long time, which contribute nutrients if nitrogen fixing trees are used, or enhanced income if fruits trees are used or high value medicinal trees.
Trees and forests are immeasurably precious. Healthy, abundant forests don't just enhance lives, they save lives. They provide shelter, fuel, medicine and nutrition and are central to many spiritual and cultural beliefs. They also enable us and other species to breathe. 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods and 50% of the world's species live in tropical forests alone. Currently, 2.8 billion people across the world are faced with starvation due to depleted forest resources and bad agricultural practices. Yet human pressures pose the biggest threat to forests - we destroy 124,000 acres every day. At the Darsfoundation we protect forests and we do this by working with local communities to establish sustainable forestry practices.
In Ghana however, the protected forests and every other forests that is supposed to provide additional alternative livelihoods to people living on the fringes of Ghana’s forests and the forests are under threat from a range of problems, most of which are caused by human factors. Population growth and the expansion of human activities are seriously affecting the overall ecosystem as well as decimating specific animal populations. It has been possible through various reports (the 1995 FAO/UNDP reports and IRMP in particular) to allocate priorities to each of the threat to forests, the importance of which vary with both time and space. These concerns include-
(i) Legal or illegal over-extraction of wood and most other natural resources which has depleted the resource base below sustainability but not below recovery levels
(ii) Potential species extinctions
(iii) Poaching
(iv) Lack of community participation in sustainable resource use programs in the surrounding areas of high population density and
(v) Lack of multi-sectoral management capacity.
These threats are made worse by the lack of trained human resources, finance and equipment to address them. A new management system is required that has a broader base and community participatory involvement, and with multi-sectoral expertise that allows an increase in revenue capture and a higher re-investment in conservation and afforestation programs.
Ghana’s forest can be divided into a high-forest zone in the south and a savanna zone, mostly in the north. The forest zone accounts for about a third of the land area. According FAO, Ghana’s forest cover decreased from 35% to 22% between 1990 and 2010. At the beginning of the last century, tropical forests in the high-forest zone covered 8 million hectares. Today only 1.6 million hectares of forest is left (about 1.9%). In the first decade of this century, deforestation rates were 2.1% per year (FAO, 2011). Many local groups in Ghana are recognized as forest-dependent communities are being deprived of their livelihood as a result of forest deforestation and land degradation.
The consequences of this is climate change that is impacting negatively on Ghanaians through floods, sea level rise, poor erratic rainfall patterns resulting in threat to bumper food production, erosion described as irregular and drought. The last threats and challenge to agriculture, waterbodies and forests in Ghana is the legal and illegal activities of Galamsy which are causing wanton destruction of fertile lands, forests. Galamsy is also destroying and poisoning our fresh waterbodies however every institution established to deal with this issue are unable to perform their functions due to political interferences, bad leadership and poor human resources and weak institutions. Deforestation in Ghana is occurring at an alarming rate of 1.9% per annum averagely but in some areas it’s higher than 5%, considered as one of the highest in Africa. This is done through timber exploitation (illegal logging & chainsaw operation), mangrove extraction, firewood and charcoal production, wildfires, slash and burn agricultural expansions. All the mentioned key drivers of deforestation and land degradation came about as a result of failed policy and institutional weaknesses, demographic changes and poverty.
Under the Clean Development Mechanism, savannah land would be re-afforested which have started under late President Mills, through afforestation the following trees would be planted (fruit, wood or fuel wood and nitrogen fixing trees) to eliminate the usage of agro-chemical, fertilizer application and pesticide. Any carbon removed from the atmosphere today by forest is worth more than any invented technological devices. Future emissions reduction depends on green forests because carbon dioxide has long residency in the atmosphere than any other gases. Forest plays an important role in both mitigation and adaptation one hectare of forest reduces emission of over four hundred and fifty vehicles. Forests are six hundred times more effective than any invented technological devices in combating climate change. Reducing the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere via afforestation and by adjusting natural and human systems so that they are less vulnerable to climate change effects. Our appetite for economic expansions and financial drives at the expense of our environment cannot be over looked but we can control our environment and the food production system we have adopted which does not affect our economic and financial drives.
Avoiding carbon emission from deforestation and degradation by protecting forest covers enhancing carbon sequestration through afforestation, re-forestation and sustainable forest management but with the involvement of multi-sectoral participations. Afforestation should not be the planting of just trees but the combinations of other trees, which includes trees of nitrogen fixing trees, fruit trees, medicinal trees and fuelwood trees.
Climate change will impact disproportionately on poorer African countries and this does not exclude Ghana. The poorest people in these countries will suffer the greatest hardships. Economic activities in these countries in general are rural-based, relying on agriculture and forestry. It is they who will see the possibility of escaping from poverty become increasingly more difficult to achieve due to climate change brought about almost by entirely, richer people living elsewhere the phenomenal of capitalist concepts. African subsistence farmers are among the most vulnerable. The lack of comprehensive and accessible early warning systems for farmers compounds the problems. Adaptation will not be possible for those already living on the edge without significant assistance.
The continent of Africa has the highest proportion of food insecure people of any region of the world. The population is set to double within a couple decades and hundreds of millions of people still live from subsistence agriculture on farms that average two hectares and which are small. Many Africa is arid in general the soil are poor and yet many areas of Africa clearly do have enormous agricultural potential. The pathway of the Nile Rivers all have enormous untapped potential for irrigated agriculture. The forest zones of the central and western Africa have greater potential for trees crops ranging from mixed tree crop systems of West Africa to the potential for very large plantation in the central African countries.
The Millennium Development Goals will not be met through continuous reliance of 65-80% of Africa’s population on subsistence agriculture as progress is driven by economic forces. Improved policies, better infrastructure and greater access to markets would unleash the entrepreneurial potential of Africa farmers who would respond by intensifying their methods and using more agricultural inputs. Better farmers would expand their land holdings and economies of scale would be achieved. The best recipe to enable Africa farmers to adapt climate change may be to give them good education, technical skills, healthcare, infrastructure and access to markets. They will then be in a position to make their own choices about the agricultural strategies that best meet their needs.
There is the need to increase food and forestry potential for Ghana, in particular African countries, small-scale farmers needs to be involved in voluntary markets for carbon and international market mechanisms such as clean development mechanism (CDM & REDD+) projects. Increase our knowledge and strategies to reduce carbon emissions through community based afforestation and reforestation projects, agroforestry and reduced deforestation and land degradation of all stakeholders in forestry, agriculture and water. These strategies have the potential to create synergies for increasing productivity and achieving the multiple functions of agriculture and forestry if well implemented.