Movement under environmental disasters: the case of flooding and bushfires for selected periods in Ghana

"Globally, the migration process has, to some extent, helped to reduce population pressure on agricultural land and contributed to increasing agricultural productivity and reducing rural poverty. However, migration in many places of the world has put pressure on housing and other services, leading to the development of slums, thus having an adverse impact on the environment. Migrating has been mostly multidirectional and mainly unpredictable in Ghana. Movement has span across local and trans-national boundaries. Of particular concern is migration motivated by environmental impacts of man-induced and natural drivers. Since the bushfires of 1983 through to the recent flooding of most of the northern half of Ghana, people have been forced to migrate from their farmstead and residence in search of places of solace. Coupled with this is the perennial flooding associated with the opening of the spillways of the Bagri and Akosombo dams in Burkina Faso and Ghana respectively. The paper examines the incidence of migration in Ghana with particular reference to those caused by environmental drives including changes in weather patterns that result in bushfires, drought and floods. Communities in the forest and savannah zones of Ghana were investigated. Particular focus was laid on the extensive bushfires of 1983 and the northern floods of 2007 a period spanning 24 years. Questionnaire focusing the drivers, impacts of floods and bushfires were sent to the field to obtain comments from respondents. Some key personnel form the department of wildlife; meteorological stations including researchers and policy makers were engaged in focus group discussions. The participatory research approach was undertaken, where questionnaire checklist, focus group discussion and group discussions were employed to solicit information from respondents. Incidental, snow balling and cluster sampling were varied to arrive at the sample. Study area was stratified and discussed along climatic/vegetation zones. Target population of over 20million Ghanaians were considered for the study which reflected the impact of environmental drivers of migration as reflected on Ghana, an area of 238,500 sq km (92,090 sq mi), with 10 administrative regions. The study also drew some of its data from an initial research conducted on bushfires in Ghana for the period of 1983-1984. Emphasis was however based on the incidence and distribution of environmental disasters-Floods, Bushfires in Ghana." (author's abstract