The contribution of Humans to vegetation degradation in Northern Ghana

     It is a well-known fact that land is a free gift of nature which is limited in supply. The activities of mankind on land may always either make or unmake it. The old adage that “when the last tree dies, the last man dies” sounds simple, but contains a very strong message of caution to mankind about the relevance of trees and even nature in general to survival. In general, the extent of the activities of humans on land may vary from one place to another depending on the natural endowments that these lands hold. For instance, if the major source of livelihood for the people in a particular place is the land, then we can expect more human activities on the land over there.

     In the Northern part of Ghana in West Africa, the vegetation cover is basically savanna. Most of the land there is flat, with trees and vast lands of natural grass cover. The Shea tree and mango trees are the commonest trees in this zone. Most of the people in this area are peasant farmers who rely solely on small scale cultivation of the land for survival. A great deal of cattle rearing also takes place in this zone because the environment there is suitable for that purpose. Quite regrettably, the people of Northern Ghana have over the years engaged in activities that have caused a faster deterioration rate of the vegetation over there compared to any other part of the country. Before recent times, the mining communities located in the central part of the country use to have the fastest land degradation rates. These human activities in the North are not farfetched: they include: (1)the continues practice of indigenous farming methods such as shifting cultivation,(2) Over grazing, (3)bush burning,(4) charcoal burning (5) sand winning activities among others. In the upcoming paragraphs, I shall proceed to discussed each of these human activities in Northern Ghana in detail except that on bush burning since I already discussed it in great detail in one of my earlier posts titled “causes of bush fires in northern Ghana”.

     By definition, shifting cultivation is a form of agriculture, in which an area of ground is cleared of the vegetation and cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for a new area until its fertility has been naturally restored. The practice of this form of agriculture is very common in Northern Ghana. The farmers in this area, most of whom are illiterates produce mostly yam and corn. These farmers believe that yaw can only be cultivated on newly cleared lands. For this reason, they move onto new lands very year. The implication here is that several acres of the vegetation cover in this area are cleared each year to make way for the cultivation of yaw-the staple food of the people over there. For the most part this practice can be blamed on the illiteracy of these farmers and also the complete absence of education and information in the area regarding the downside of destroying the vegetation. It turns out that this issue may need exigent attention before things spin out of control.

     Secondly, over grazing is an issue in this part of the country. In simple terms, overgrazing refers to the situation whereby grass-eating animals such as cattle are allowed to graze so heavily on a particular piece of grassland land to the point that it actually gets damaged or get bare and liable to erosion.  Almost all cattle raisers in this area rely of the natural grass lands close to valley areas to feed their cows and even sheep. And more often than not these animals are constantly brought to the same spots to graze until they get bare and exposed.

     Thirdly, Charcoal burning is another major contributor to the “rape” of the vegetation in the northern part of Ghana. On the same post mention earlier above on bush fires, you can find a detailed the description of how charcoal is produced. But in the nutshell it involves the cutting down and burning of tree logs and putting the fire out just before the logs are completely consumed to get a black substance called charcoal. Charcoal is the major source of domestic fuel for cooking in most parts of Ghana not only in the north, but it is mainly produced in the north and transported to all other parts of the country.

     Finally, sand winning is another issue which is increasing becoming a problem in this area. This was never an issue in the area at least in the two decades. Increased settlement has led to the rise in the demand for sand for molding blocks used in housing construction. Sand is collected indiscriminately especially from water ways exposing these areas to serious erosion when it rains.

     In summary, rapid measures need to be put in place to arrest this situation immediately otherwise the possibility of the place becoming a complete desert in the next few decades is just a matter of time.

Options to address the land tenure problem in Ghana

     In this post, I proceed as a follow up on my earlier post titled “Land ownership in Ghana and its effect on Socio-economic development”. The premise of that post was to point out the socio-economic consequences of Ghana’s current land tenure system. In this post I present a few suggestions to fix this land tenure problem.

     To start with, the protection of investors’ interests is key to look into. To protect the interests of investors and also make Ghana an attractive destination for investment, it is necessary for the Government to reform our land tenure system and make laws that will make it easier for any investor to acquire large parcels of land for large-scale agricultural activities as well as other commercial projects. Measures, which ensure the legal security of deed and title registration over the period for which the land is rented or leased, are urgently needed. Given Ghana’s traditional system and cultural norms, it may not be possible for the Government to reform the land tenure system to the extent that land can be bought, owned and sold privately as occurs in some countries. Indeed I’m not advocating such a radical reform.

     One option for assisting with land acquisition for large-scale commercial/economic development would be for the Government to acquire land directly from landowners and pay compensation. The Government could then lease the land to potential investors at market rates, and the rental income paid as compensation to the landowners. Compensation could be in the form of either lump sum up front payment or an annual rent over the term of the lease. This currently occurs with some stool lands acquired by the Government for commercial/developmental activities through the Stools Lands Division within the Ministry of Land and Forestry in Ghana. The advantage of this option is that potential investors will deal directly with the Government of Ghana, which is a recognized legal and sovereign entity rather than some obscure, individual traditional land-owner(s). This practice can be expanded, formalized and enshrined in legislation and backed by transparent administrative guidelines and/or regulations for its implementation.

     Another option is for the Government to facilitate an arrangement whereby landowners can participate in economic projects as financial partners by converting the rent they would have otherwise received from leasing or renting the land into equity. Direct financial interest in large-scale projects can be a powerful way of achieving local community support and commitment.

      A third option is the creation of “land banks” where land owners who may wish to offer their land for leasing or renting on a long term basis, can register their details. Land banks can offer a “one-stop land acquisition service” for potential investors similar to the “free zones” concept. However, to obviate the problems relating to land acquisition in Ghana described above, it will be necessary for the Government to ensure that potential investors receive secure titles to the land they are renting or leasing over the life of the rental or lease agreement.

     With so many highly educated and progressive chiefs now occupying traditional stools and skins in Ghana, there has never been an opportune time for a government to champion the reform of the country’s land tenure system. This presents the current President of Ghana and his government both a challenge and an excellent leadership opportunity, to bring about a positive reform of the existing land tenure system for the benefit of the country.

     In the 21st Century Ghana, we cannot continue to ignore land tenure reforms. To do so will be at the expense of Ghana’s socio-economic development; this in the end will unleash untold hardship on its populace.

Land ownership in Ghana and its effect on Socio-economic development

     The current constitution of Ghana identifies four main categories of land ownership. These include: public/state lands, vested lands, allodial/stool /skin lands and private/family lands. First of all the distinctions among these forms of land ownership are fairly straight forward. Public/state lands refer of all lands owned by the state. These mostly include lands endowed with natural resources as well as other lands acquired by the government for public interest. Vested lands refer to lands for which an individual or a group has an absolute right to for some present or future interest. The third form of land ownership in Ghana is the allodial/stool/skin lands. In Ghana, each traditional community originates from a clan. A clan is a group of people who believe to have descended from a common ancestor, and who share the same beliefs and taboos and are mostly the original settlers of a particular community. The chiefs or traditional rulers of the community are usually members of the clan. All lands that are collectively owned and kept by the head of the clan, who is also most times the chief of the community, are called stool/skin lands. Quite often than not, these lands are believed to be spiritual lands and are not meant to be used by anybody for any purpose. The last category of land ownership is the private or family land. Family lands are those lands purchased individually of jointly by a family. These lands are also more often than not inherited from parents or grandparents.

     Over the years some people have raised concern about the existing land tenure system in Ghana and regard it as anachronistic and the need for an urgent reform. These people have also argued that Ghana’s land tenure system impedes the country’s socio-economic development, and is completely out of place in a modern, progressive country. From a personal point of view, I share the same concern as these people and the reasons I shall discuss below.

     First of all, the current land tenure system constitutes a serious disincentive to investment in Ghana’s economy. The lack of several large-scale commercial agricultural projects in Ghana, similar to those existing in some francophone West African countries such as the Ivory Coast, can be partly attributed to the problems associated with acquiring land for economic activities.

     It is unlikely that serious large overseas investors would be prepared to undertake protracted negotiations, on a one-to-one basis, with several allodial title holders in order to put together suitable large parcels of land for large-scale commercial agricultural projects. Even where this is possible, investors potentially face the problem of on-going litigation over the legal right of the land they have acquired or leased.

     It is not uncommon for the rights to land, which has already been leased or rented and compensation duly paid by an investor to one allodial titleholder, to be challenged or disputed by another allodial titleholder. There have been instances where disputes have arisen when individuals had successfully negotiated parcels of land for residential/commercial construction only to be challenged by other parties, who also claim ownership of, or interest in, the same parcel of land.

     Throughout Ghana’s history, the nation’s peasant farmers have done a wonderful job in feeding the country based on subsistence agriculture. This mode of production may continue to sustain the nation if the aim is only to satisfy Ghana’s domestic food needs. Peasant agriculture cannot continue to meet Ghana’s domestic food needs as well as exports. Quite unfortunately, the few people who are usually interested in commercial farming would not be given this allodial /skin lands of to farm on for reasons best known to these chiefs.

     In light of these economic draw backs arising from the current land tenure system in Ghana, an urgent reform of land ownership laws could be a great way to move forward.

 

Causes deserts: an overview of some geological explanations

         

            Desert landscapes are the least understood among terrain types of the Earth. To this end, El-baz (1988) argues that the dearth of the basic information on the arid lands has resulted in the misconception that the desert is man-made and that, therefore, we can ‘fix it’.  Scientific evidence indicates that deserts are part of the natural feature of the Earth and Mars. They form as a result of the lack or scarcity of rain, which may be cyclical.

            Most deserts are hot. One geological study explains that within the latitudes of the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the sun appears directly overhead at noon on at least one day of the year. To the north or south of them, the sun is never directly overhead, and not as concentrated as the beam that reaches the tropical areas.

            It is not uneasy to see that deserts are not scattered haphazardly over the earth; the pattern of their occurrence is perhaps shaped by the factors that produced them. The major world deserts occur in two discontinuous belts ringing the globe. Because more land surface occurs in the Northern Hemisphere in the latitudes described, more deserts occur in the Northern than the Southern Hemisphere.

            Not all deserts are hot. Some of these dry lands, like the Atacama of Chile, the Namib and Kalahari of southern Africa, and the western Australian desert are not typically hot.

It is important to understand that warm air holds more moisture than cold air. With this in mind, I shall move on to briefly discuss four main natural causes of deserts: the Earth’s air circulation patterns could potentially cause deserts. Warm air rises at the equator, and cools. Since cool air holds less water, precipitation is common at the equator. When dry air at  moves north and south. At ±30 degrees, the dry air sinks and warms. The warmer air can hold more water resulting in evaporation of water and the formation of deserts. The equatorial region is tropical and ± 30 degrees is desert. 
     Rain shadow effect is also a factor that potentially causes deserts.This occurs when moving moisture in the air encounters a mountain and is moved upward. The ascending air is cooled and releases moisture on the windward side of the range. Once over the summit, the air descends the lee side of the range, warming as it does so, and hence increasing its evaporative power. The windward side of a range may support a heavy well-watered forest, while the leeward side and the area far below it, robbed of moisture, and is occupied by a desert or steppe plant.

            Distance from the ocean is another factor that causes deserts. Most water in atmosphere is evaporated from the sea, and this water eventually precipitates on land. Land closer to the sea generally receives much of this moisture.  As air moves inland, it gets depleted of moisture and precipitation drops.  Areas lying deep within a continent may become desert simply because air currents reaching them have already traversed vast land distances; by the time they arrive over the deserts, these currents have already lost the moisture they once carried. Research has shown that this is true of some of the Asian deserts: the Gobi and Takla-Makan Deserts.

           Finally, deserts could naturally be caused by what is termed as coastal cooling. This occurs when warn, moist air is cooled,and causes excess water to condense and fall as precipitation. If it is subsequently re-warmed, it will be drier than it was previously.

            In conclusion, all these climatic, desert-producing factors descending, drying air currents; mountain-produced rain shadows; distance from oceanic moisture sources; and cold ocean currents are instrumental, sometimes singly, more often in combination, as primary forces producing arid lands.

Reference:

El-baz F., 1988. Origin and Evolution of Deserts, Center for Remote sensing, Boston University,    Boston Massachusetts, USA, Interdisciplinary Science reviews vol. 13, No. 4