Participatory Land-Seascape Visioning in Densu Estuary, Narkwa Lagoon, and Whin Estuary, Ghana

Abstract

Ghana is endowed with coastal water bodies that support fishing and fish-related enterprises to support livelihoods. The country has lost a net of 539 square kilometers of mangroves in the past two decades, necessitating an integrated approach to support ecosystems and livelihood functioning. A visioning approach was employed to engage the communities in Densu Estuary, Narkwa Lagoon,and Whin Estuary in Ghana to understand the changes, the current situation, and to identify desired future scenarios in the land-seascape. It involved 115 shellfishers (93 percent and 7 percent females and males respectively). The study suggested that shellfishers are engaged in different secondary livelihood activities, including trade, farming, and livestock keeping, with gender playing a role in activities selection. The general trend in different livelihood activities was degrading and declining productivity over the years and the hope for increased productivity in the future. Natural drivers such as changing temperature and rainfall patterns and human drivers such as crop production, infrastructural development, population growth, overharvesting of fish resources, and pollution, were cited by the communities as being behind degradation patterns. The visioning process identified different activities or practices that the communities want to: 1) stop from happening (e.g., pollution, light fishing, overfishing, etc.), 2) expand or promote (e.g., mangrove restoration), and 3) new activities they want to introduce (e.g., alternative livelihood options and market linkages). Stakeholder organizations and their responsibilities were identified, falling broadly under government, NonGovernmental Organizations (NGO), community, and private sector typologies. Community perceptions on the state of mangrove forests and their relationship to shellfishing activities was documented. Discussion of findings highlight the need for regulatory measures to be implemented in these community land-seascapes and for empowering local resource governance systems through deployment of co-management schemes, contextualized to the local realities