**Abstract**

The Savannah woodland and forest ecosystems are considered as fragile ecosystems in Ghana. They are located in pro-poor areas of the country. They serve as livelihood support systems for the poor in those areas. In the midst of climate change, the same woods are expected to provide mitigation support against climate change. These woodland and forest ecosystems are in a state of dilemma: providing adaptation support to humans and at the same time providing mitigation support against climate change in the midst of climatic and seasonal challenges: low rainfall, excessive heat, harmattan and annual bushfires. The sustainability of these ecosystems depends on the net effect resulting from the pressures of adaptation, efforts of mitigation, resilience of the ecosystems and other natural support systems. This chapter explores the relationship among woodland, adaptation and mitigation activities. In this relationship, the human face has played a central role, thus influencing the direction of the net effects of the pressures on woodland ecosystems. Adaptation is over-emphasised, misunderstood and decoupled from mitigation resulting in maladaptation. This has contributed to the worsening impacts of climate change. Climate change adaptation needs to be re-emphasised to ensure mitigation is considered in every adaptation measure.

**Keywords:** adaptation, Giddens Paradox, mitigation, maladaptation, climate change

## **1. Introduction**

The meaning people ascribe to climate change in terms of their understanding of the phenomenon, perception of the risks involved, value judgments, and emotional reactions, is closely related to how they adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change [1]. For instance, climate change is influenced by many factors, and it also influences many aspects of life and nature, which make it a complex issue to understand and deal with. Global climate change and its impacts are major environmental issues the world is currently battling with [2]. It is considered the most serious global environmental issue of today and the most difficult issue to manage by both scientists and policymakers [2, 3]. It affects every aspect of human society and worst of all, human well-being. It requires both individual and global efforts towards a sustainable solution (idem). The arguments and counter arguments about its existence, causes, and impacts are converging and there is a high level of global consensus about its

existence, impacts, and the need to address it [4]. It is agreed that the solution lies in the ability to keep global temperature rise within a 2°C limit although there are disagreements on the strategies to reduce global temperature rise to below 2°C. This requires strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases that would limit climate change [5].

The global community is relying so much on the mitigating capacity of woodland and forest ecosystems through the sequestration of atmospheric CO2, and reduction in emissions from anthropogenic activities while encouraging the rural communities to adopt other ways of livelihoods. Current adaptation strategies are resulting in negative feedback on climate change and the woodland and forest ecosystems are under pressure to support alternative livelihoods. This suggests that the relationship between climate change, woodland/forest ecosystems, and adaptation is still not clearly understood. It is therefore important to understand climate change from a system perspective of how it influences woodland/forest ecosystems and anthropogenic activities and how they interact to influence climate change.

Though climate change is not new in human history, the current changes in the global climate change have serious implications for human life, other living organisms, and ecosystems in general. Scientific observations and model simulations have indicated that the climate of the Earth is now changing at unprecedented rates which are attributed to human activities such as burning fossil fuels clearing woodlands/forests for farmlands and cities, and grazing activities [5]. These activities release a huge amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane, halo-carbons, and nitrous oxide) into the atmosphere with dire consequences for the climate system of the Earth. Lots of efforts in various forms have been expended with the aim of reducing GHGs and improving the climate system of the Earth thereby making the Earth a conducive place for humans. These efforts are mainly in four areas:


In all these efforts, it is how humans adapt and mitigate the current impacts of climate change that will inform the intensity and extent of future climate change.

Although the scientific effort has yielded a number of good results in terms of scientific and political agreement on the reality of anthropogenic climate change and the need to tackle it, the adaptation and mitigation efforts are not yielding the needed results. One reason could be the inadequate understanding of the relationship between the forces of anthropogenic climate change, woodland/forest ecosystems,

#### *Nexus between Savannah Woodland Degradation and Climate Change in Northern Ghana DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107265*

and adaptation strategies in rural areas. Also, there is no consensus among the rural, national and global communities on the mitigation strategies for tackling climate change. The global and national communities placed Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) and later Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation coupled with forest conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stock (REDD+) top on the mitigation agenda and imposed that on the rural communities, which they see as a threat to their means of adaptation to same climate change. These strategies are currently resisted at the local levels due to the economic issues relating to adaptation. The caveat to overcome the challenges encountered from the implementation of REDD and REDD+ such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) where beneficiaries or users of an ecosystem services make payments to the providers of those services [6], carbon markets cannot still overcome the strong land tenure and adaptation barriers mounted by the rural communities. The effects of resistance against these interventions are contributing significantly to the negative feedback effects of climate change adaptation on climate change and its impacts across the world.

In Ghana, the relationship between adaptation, woodland and forest ecosystems, and mitigation at the rural community level is still not clearly understood. This is leading to maladaptation due to over-dependence on woodland and forest ecosystems for adaptation, with very little effort in woodland and forest-based mitigation activities.

This chapter throws more light on the relationship between adaptation, woodland and forest ecosystems, and mitigation, with a focus on charcoal production and logging in the Savannah areas of Ghana. These adaptation and mitigation activities have a direct influence on the state of the woodland and forest ecosystems in the area.
