Climate Variability, Land Cover Changes and Livelihoods of Communities on the Fringes of Bobiri Forest Reserve, Ghana
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Date
2020
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eprints.com
Abstract
Climate variability coupled with land use and land cover changes have resulted in significant
changes in forest reserves in Ghana with major implications for rural livelihoods. Understanding
the link between climate variability, land use and land cover changes and rural livelihoods is key for
decision-making, especially regarding sustainable management of forest resources, monitoring of
ecosystems and related livelihoods. The study determined the extent to which climate variability
drives land cover changes in the Bobiri forest reserve, Ghana. Landsat images from 1986, 2003, 2010
and 2014 were used to evaluate land cover changes of the Bobiri forest reserve in Ghana. Participatory
research approaches including household questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and
key informant interviews were conducted in four fringe communities of the Bobiri forest reserve.
Findings showed that local people perceived changes in rainfall and temperature patterns over the
past years. Historical rainfall and temperature data for the study area showed increased variability
in rainfall and an increasing temperature trend, which are consistent with the perception of the
study respondents. Analysis of land cover satellite images showed that there has been significant
transformation of closed forest to open forest and non-forest land cover types over the 28-year period
(1986–2014), with an overall kappa statistic of 0.77. Between 2003 and 2014, closed forest decreased by
15.6% but settlement/bare ground and crop land increased marginally by 1.5% and 0.9%, respectively.
Focus group discussions and key informant interviews revealed that increased land cover changes
in the Bobiri forest reserve could partly be attributed to erratic rainfall patterns. Other factors such
as logging and population growth were reported to be factors driving land cover changes. The
study concluded that the Bobiri forest reserve has witnessed significant land cover changes and
recommended that alternative livelihood sources should be provided to reduce the direct dependency
of fringe communities on the forest for livelihood and firewood.
Description
This article is published by eprints and is also available at https://doi.org/10.3390/f12030278
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Citation
https://doi.org/10.3390/f12030278