**2. Climate change and human ineptitude in the rural communities of Ghana**

Scientists have explained that the impacts of climate change will continue to be devastating for both natural and human systems. In northern Ghana, the evidence of climate change is clear. The trend of minimum and maximum monthly temperatures of some parts of Northern Ghana (Wa, Navrongo, and Tamale) for a 45-year period (1961–2005) revealed increasing trends of minimum and maximum temperature values. The trend is of concern because current minimum temperature values are approaching past maximum temperature values. The trend lines for the monthly minimum and maxim for the period all indicate positive gradients, signifying a general increase in the average temperature values for three locations (**Figures 1** and **2**). In the case of the Tamale station, there is a dip in the trend line suggesting that there was a slide reduction in the minimum temperatures within the period and it then started increasing gradually again (**Figure 1**).

However, the trend of the annual rainfall amounts for the 45 years showed dwindling annual rainfall amounts (**Figure 3**). The trend lines for the three locations showed negative gradients, suggesting a continuous reduction in the average annual rainfall amounts for the 45 years.

These trends in the minimum, maximum, and annual rainfall amounts point to the fact that the efforts of natural systems alone would not be able to reverse the trends but there is the need for concerted human effort to complement the effort of the natural systems. Human intervention must emphasise the change in consumption

#### **Figure 1.**

*Trend of minimum monthly temperature values from 1961 to 2005 of selected weather stations in Northern Ghana. (Data source: Ghana Meteorological Agency).*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Trend of maximum monthly temperature values from 1961 to 2005 of selected weather stations in Northern Ghana. (Data source: Ghana Meteorological Agency).*

and sustainability attitudes towards natural resources, namely forest resources, and oil and gas products that influence the climate system.

The advocacy for change to mitigate the current and future impacts of climate change is well advertised through REDD, REDD+, AFLU (Agriculture, Forestry, Land Use), etc. The expectation is that there should have been a visible decline in the impacts of climate change, with increasing mitigation activities at the local community level but that is not the case. This leaves many people in the Giddens Paradox, wondering why a threat of such magnitude is ignored by some sections of society. Giddens [7] explained that if there is a lack of tangible and immediate dangers from a threatening phenomenon such as climate change, most people will do nothing to respond immediately. Consequently, by the time the dangers of the phenomenon become visible and dangerous to everyone, it would be too late to act. This suggests that if this is the current perception about climate change in the rural Ghanaian communities, then the worst of the impacts of climate change is yet to happen in the country because some people are yet to experience the tangible and immediate dangers of

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

#### **Figure 3.**

*Trend of annual rainfall amounts (mm) from 1961 to 2005 for Wa, Navrongo, and Tamale weather stations. (Data source: Ghana Meteorological Agency).*

it and until then life is still business as usual [4]. However, the Giddens Paradox does not sufficiently explain the ineptness of some people towards climate change although they experience the impacts of climate change and acknowledge that it is real, and everyone is at risk (**Figure 4**). Some people feel that the risk of poverty today is more detrimental to their survival than the risk of climate change today and tomorrow; no matter what or who is the cause of the change. In the case of the rural poor, if the rains fail and government policies do not support them, their mode of adaptation can be the cause of climate change, but they will continue to ensure their daily survival rather than climate change mitigation. For instance, in the case of charcoal production and timber logging, the rural poor will not allow the last tree to sequester CO2 while they suffer in poverty on daily basis (**Figure 4**). They prefer to fight poverty through charcoal production and sale, and unsustainable logging of timber at the expense of climate change mitigation strategies such as REDD+, sustainable harvesting of wood, and protection of the woodland ecosystems. Such people feel that the effects of poverty are experienced now while the effects of climate change mitigation are in anticipation and for them, the choice between mitigation and adaptation is obvious [8–10]. Charcoal production has become a major climate change adaptation strategy for many people in the charcoal production value chain. This is because it generates quick income for those involved with low startup capital requirements for the producers, many of whom rely on natural woodland for the raw materials for the production of charcoal. The production of charcoal in Ghana is on the rise.

## **3. Climate change adaptation in the rural areas**

Adaptation is a necessity in climate change but how do those who lack or have insufficient capacity to adapt, do so sustainably? Without the appropriate capacity to adapt, the intended adaptation would be maladaptation i.e. more negative feedback effects on the climate system than the benefits to cope with the impacts of climate change. For the poorest of the poor, adaptation is meaningless without the capacity to adapt. When there is no capacity support from state institutions, non-governmental

#### **Figure 4.**

*The struggle against rural poverty at the expense of climate change mitigation. (Source of pictures: field data, 2014).*

organisations (NGOs), and philanthropists, the capacity of the poor to adapt to climate change impacts would largely be dependent on woodland and forest ecosystems (**Figures 4** and **5**). However, over-emphasis on these systems would place undue stress on the capacity of these ecosystems.

The issue with the initial climate change discourse is that the need for the rural poor to adapt was over-trumpeted without providing such people the capacity to adapt sustainably. Thus, everything about climate change to the rural poor is an adaptation, adaptation, and adaptation. Adaptation is then misunderstood and decoupled from mitigation activities resulting in the worsening climate change impacts. The past misconception of adaptation by the rural poor later conflicted with the view of scientists about climate change as illustrated in **Figure 5**. The crust of the conflict is when it was realised that they (the scientists) and the rural poor are competing for the same woodland and forest ecosystems in addressing both adaptation and mitigation issues. The rural poor in Ghana, through no fault of theirs, have opened Pandora's box on the woodland and forest ecosystems for various adaptation activities thereby loosening existing access arrangements for these ecosystems (see [11]).

The woodland ecosystems require human support to either maintain or enhance their capacity to support the woodland-based adaptation activities of humans.

#### **Figure 5.**

*Conflicting views of climate change about adaptation and mitigation. (Source of pictures: Field data, 2014).*

Unfortunately, they are not receiving the needed support, they are rather exploited because of their fundamental role in rural livelihoods in the country [12]. In principle, it is clear that scientists are losing hope in the woodland and forest ecosystems mitigation strategies as a panacea to the increasing impacts of climate change because the dependence on the woodland and forest ecosystems' livelihoods is overwhelming.
