Environmental Change, Livelihood Diversification and Local Knowledge in North-Eastern Ghana

In Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the most daunting challenges of development is how to address the vulnerability of livelihoods to environmental change, including climate change and land degradation. Livelihood diversification is very often discussed as a strategy for reducing livelihood vulnerability to such change, but the dynamics and policy implications are seldom explored adequately. This chapter explores the patterns associated with livelihood diversification for reducing vulnerability to environmental change in the Atankwidi basin, north-eastern Ghana from a three generational and gender perspective. Empirical data from in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and a survey of 131 randomly sampled households show mixed and dynamic patterns in diversification. These include increasing diversification of household livelihood portfolios, a declining trend in the number of spouses engaged in subsistence agriculture and an increasing trend in the number of spouses engaged in trade. The author argues that the patterns and dynamics of livelihood diversification for addressing vulnerability are akin to an Endogenous Development (ED) approach. Livelihood diversification draws on local resources and proceeds with subsistence agriculture as the primary livelihood of the household and an embodiment of the local knowledge of the people. To this end, incorporating environmental change adaptation planning that address challenges of subsistence agriculture, trade and handcrafts through District Development Planning (DDP) is appropriate in Ghana.