Livelihood Adaptation

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Climate change is now acclaimed as one of the most arduous and complicated problem confronting the globe. The risk factors are very high and the impacts would raise considerably the developmental impediments of safeguarding livelihood security and poverty eradication in most Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations in general (IPCC, 2014) and Northern Ghana in particular. Climate and ecological change has intensified potentially unexpected and permanent disruptions of life and livelihood-sustaining natural systems, leading to socio-cultural, economic and environmental disruptions (UNSCEB, 2008). Current climate change projections by climate experts indicate progressively severe negative impacts on many countries across the world (IPCC, 2014). However, …show more content…

Components of household adaptive capacity consist of the crucial elements that enhance their abilities to tackle future risks (Eakin, 2005). Livelihood adaptation is a response to long-term process in contrast to coping strategies, which refer to short-term livelihood reactions in the consequence of unplanned or unforeseen crises following events like droughts or floods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change definition of adaptation as ‘‘an adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities’’ (McCarthy, 2001: 869) has a compelling attention on the precise threats caused by climate change. The sustainable livelihood framework (Chambers and Conway, 1992; Scoones, 1998; Ellis, 2000) on the other hand emphasis on how people use livelihood assets (human, natural, financial, social, and physical) in a context of shocks, trends and seasonality. The choice of strategies is mediated by structures (e.g., levels of government, private sector) and processes (e.g., laws, policies, culture, institutions) and results in livelihood outcomes, such as income, well-being, or food security (Chambers and Conway, 1992; Ellis, 2000). The IPCC differentiates several types of adaptation: anticipatory (or proactive), reactive (or autonomous or spontaneous), and planned adaptation (‘‘the result of a deliberate policy decision, based on an awareness that conditions have changed or are about to change and that action is required to return to, maintain, or achieve a desired state’’ McCarthy, 2001:869). Livelihood adaptation (anticipatory) processes rely on diverse mechanisms than coping (reactive) processes. The long-term processes might be environmentally

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