Smallholder farmers’ perceived effects of land use and cover change on provisioning ecosystem services in the savannah ecological zone of Ghana

Abstract

Ecosystem services are essential for life sustenance but are presently threatened by land use and cover change (LUCC). Meanwhile, policymakers tend to to disregard sustainable pathways that enhance ecosystem integrity due to limited empirical evidence of the impacts of LUCC on provisioning ecosystem services. The existing studies largely rely only on geospatial data or use proxy variables without integration of qualitative information. This study employed a blend of geospatial and qualitative approaches to analyse the spatiotemporal dynamics of LUCC and the perceived impact on provisioning ecosystem services in the savannah zone of Ghana. The findings reveal an expansion of cultivated area from 4.59 km2 to 178.63 km2 and a decrease in wooded savannah area from 176.022 km2 to 29.22 km2 between 1990 and and 2020 in the Bongo district. Declines in wooded savannah area from 471.685 km2 to 258.38 km2 and expansion of cultivated area from 5.79 km2 to 123.80 km2 from 1990 to 2020 were also observed in the KNW district. In In synch with the satellite data, farmers observed expansion in agricultural areas at the expense of wooded savannah area over the past decades. Though farmers highly depend on ecosystems for livelihood needs, the capacity of the ecosystems to continually support their livelihood requirements has decreased over the past decade, and this has resulted in substantial declines in vital provisioning ecosystem services such as cereals, fuelwood, fodder and forage, grazing fields, medicinal plants, and wild edible fruits and vegetables. To ameliorate decreasing provisioning ecosystem services, environmental governance policies should promote strategies that restore degraded ecosystems.