Dealing with reducing trends in forest ecosystem services through a vulnerability assessment and planned adaptation actions

摘要

Vulnerability of forest ecosystems in West Africa is likely to be aggravated with current and projectedclimate and human stresses with implications for adaptation and REDD regimes. This is becausevulnerability of the forest ecosystems affects economic sectors and millions of people that depend ontheir services. This study investigated vulnerability of forest ecosystems through land use land cover(LULC) changes and the availability of economically useful forest ecosystem provisioning services inGhana and Burkina Faso in the face of different stresses using landsat imageries and ParticipatoryRural Appraisal. Our analysis indicates that current and projected land cover changes and localperception on availability of forest resources in the different ecological zones are facing a decreasingtrend due to various climatic and anthropogenic drivers. Ghana shows a transition in the order of highforest, forest-savanna transition, savanna to widely open cultivated savanna, while study areas inBurkina Faso is experiencing a gradual reduction of dense natural forests reserves towards a moresparse vegetation. Local knowledge in addition to observed changes in LULC can be a useful resourcein preparing communities and ecosystems for adaptation as well as contribute to the input basedadoption of appropriate policies in REDD schemes.