The Climate Change Project

The information below may be of interest. It comes from a presentation delivered at the conference on “Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with Emphasis on Forest Health: A Review of Science, Policies, and Practices” that took place at Umea, Sweden, August 25-28, 2008. Coping with climate change: how local communities use traditional knowledge in rural Ghana Traditional knowledge has played a significant role in Africa’s adaptation efforts, in the face of low technology but still traditional knowledge is usually neglected in academic, policy and public discourses on climate change and adaptation. Farmers and other natural resource dependent communities in Ghana have been coping quite well with changes in climate through traditional knowledge and practices although the country has no climate change adaptation policy. Over the last 40 years, Ghana has recorded temperature rise of about 1oC as well as reductions in rainfall and runoff of approximately 20% and 30% respectively. The ability to, and for how long one can cope or adapt to these changes depends on the resources available and indigenous/traditional knowledge is a major resource. Indigenous people may not understand the science of climate change but they rightly observe and feel its effects. Some of the indigenous people, although admitting the changes around them, attributed it to other factors other than climate change, such as a sinful generation, wrath of God, signs of the end of life, etc. Though majority of the people believed that they have contributed to the current changes and can do something about it, others felt it was an act of God and hence nothing they can do about it. Some of the coping strategies include For inadequate rainfall, reduced water quantity and quality – Rainwater harvesting – Water rationing – Traditional norms, forbidden days, taboos, bye-laws, etc – Construction of wells and boreholes – Tree planting programmes and water protection awareness campaigns – Purchasing sachet water for drinking For crop failure and loss of income – Indigenous knowledge in weather prediction, agriculture – Replanting of failed farms – Remittances from relations and personal savings – Petty trading The challenges they have met include – The type of houses and the roofing system does not support efficient rainwater harvesting. – Respect for traditional authority is not absolute and still declining as communities become more cosmopolitan or heterogeneous. – Religion, mainly Christianity, has undermined traditional authority and their directives on forbidden day and taboos are seen as pagan/fetish and not adhered to – Communal nature of the communities is breaking down and people now think more of themselves – Farmers are no longer able to predict onset of rains very well – National policies, e.g. tree tenure – Integration of scientific and indigenous knowledge The report suggests that there should be a healthy relationship between scientific knowledge and traditional or indigenous knowledge especially in developing countries where technology for prediction and modeling is least developed. How indigenous people cope with climate change using traditional knowledge should be studied, supported and integrated into scientific knowledge for it has several advantages: – Less expensive compared to bringing in aid to salvage catastrophes and disasters – “Importing” adaptive measures which are usually introduced in a “top-down” manner is difficult to implement due to several factors including cultural or social acceptability, financial and institutional constraints – Whereas models and records of precipitation mainly focus on changing amounts of precipitation with climate change, knowledge of indigenous people also emphasize changes in the regularity, length, intensity, and timing of precipitation. – Technology is usually less developed in the rural areas; lack of electricity, etc. Indigenous people have been confronted with changing environments for millennia and have developed a wide array of coping strategies, and their traditional knowledge and practice provides an important basis for facing the even greater challenges of climate change. While indigenous communities will undoubtedly need much support to adapt to climate change, they also have much expertise to offer on coping through traditional time-tested mechanisms. There is much to learn from indigenous, traditional knowledge and community based approaches to coping with climate Contact: m.idinoba@cgiar.org Link to the presentation: http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/trofcca/attachment/umea/Presentations/13%20PP%20ID168_Gyampoh_Umea_Presentation.pdf

There is some valuable information here . I hope that this was not presented as a Power point to the conference as it breaks all the rules about what can be read during a plenary session. Never mind, it is a very useful contribution. It echos all the similar experiences that I have had during living and working in or visiting; Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana, Namibia, Vietnam, Laos, Bangaldesh, Thailand, Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, China, Nepal, India and Wales. The understanding and revaluing of the rationale behind small farmers' local knowledge and skills at coping with constantly changing environmental conditions is still much less than it might be. The study of farmers and farm systems that have evolved in areas that have been subject to unpredictable change over the past 50 years might well be useful in developing a series of coping strategies for Climate Change. My feeling is that there are already many appropriate strategies, practices and skills to cope with the likely Climate induced changes over the next 50 years and we need to make these more widely accessible. Chris Reij and Ann Waters-Bayer's book : Farmer innovation in Africa 2001 ( Earthscan) is also relevant to this discussion as it illustrates, with some excellent examples, how farmers can innovate rapidly when faced with seemingly catastrophic environmental degradation .