Abstract
Ecological grief is an emerging mental health concern and is projected to increase as climatic stressors worsen. Climate change and variability pose significant threats to the mental health of smallholder farmers residing in harsh ecological zones in Sub-Saharan Africa that rely solely on rain-fed agriculture. These farmers experience feelings of grief, despair, distress, and uncertainty related to climate-change-induced ecological losses. As extreme climate change events increase in intensity and frequency and reinforce existing vulnerabilities, such as poverty and poor health, climate-induced ecological grief will worsen among smallholder farmers due to their low adaptive capacities and resilience. Yet, ecological grief is largely unexplored within a Sub-Saharan African context as most studies have concentrated on high-income countries. Using data from semi-structured interviews with farmers (n = 60), we examine ecological grief among smallholder farmers in the harshest agro-ecological zone of Ghana in the context of a rapidly changing climate and agrarian regime. Our findings indicate a range of climate-related contexts in which ecological grief has been reported, including grief associated with physical ecological losses and grief attributed to loss of environmental knowledge, eroding culture and tradition, rising insecurity, and perceived emasculations. Additionally, we find gender differences in the triggers of ecological grief between men and women. This paper recommends that environmental policies should include measures that support farmers’ mental health as climate change stressors worsen in agrarian areas.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Adopted from Ampim et al. (2021)
Source: Summarised from Ghana Meteorological Service, and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSRI), 2017
Source: Author's construct, 2022
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The participants are anonymous to protect their privacy.
References
Adaawen S (2021) Understanding climate change and drought perceptions, impact and responses in the rural Savannah, West Africa. Atmosphere. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12050594
Addai EK, Tulashie SK, Annan JS, Yeboah I (2016) Trend of fire outbreaks in Ghana and ways to prevent these incidents. Saf Health Work 7(4):284–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2016.02.004
Ali EB, Agyekum EB, Adadi P (2021) Agriculture for sustainable development: a SWOT-AHP assessment of Ghana’s planting for food and jobs initiative. Sustainability-Basel 13(2):1–24. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020628
Ampadu B, Sackey I, Cudjoe E (2019) Rainfall distribution in the Upper East Region of Ghana, 1976–2016. Ghana J Sci Tech Dev 6(2):45–59. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17924.07042
Ampim PAY, Ogbe M, Obeng, E, Akley EK, Maccarthy DS (2021) Land cover changes in ghana over the past 24 years. Sustainability (Switzerland) 13(9). Article 4951. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094951
Asante F, Amuakwa-Mensah F (2015) Climate change and variability in Ghana: stocktaking. Climate 3(1):78–99. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli3010078
Atuoye KN, Luginaah I (2017) Food as a social determinant of mental health among household heads in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Soc Sci Med 180:170–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.016
Avotri-Wuaku J, Walters V (1999) “You just look at our work and see if you have any freedom on earth”: Ghanaian women’s accounts of their work and their health. Soc Sci Med 48(9):1123–1133. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00422-5
Bongaarts J (2019) IPBES, 2019. Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Popul Dev Rev 45(3):680–681. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12283
Bourque F, Cunsolo Willox A (2014) Climate change: the next challenge for public mental health? Int Rev Psychiatr 26(4):415–422. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2014.925851
Boyd E, Cornforth RJ, Lamb PJ, Tarhule A, Issa Lélé M, Brouder A (2013) Building resilience to face recurring environmental crisis in African Sahel. Nat Clim Change 3(7):631–637. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1856
Brown O, Crawford A (2008) Assessing the security implications of climate change for West Africa: country case studies of Ghana and Burkina Faso. IISD, Winnipeg
Bruening M, Dinour LM, Chavez JBR (2017) Food insecurity and emotional health in the USA: a systematic narrative review of longitudinal research. Public Health Nutr 20(17):3200–3208. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980017002221
Bryman A (2012) Social research methods, 4th edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Chen D, Rojas M, Samset BH et al (2021) Climate change 2021: the physical science basis. IPCC. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/
Cianconi P, Betrò S, Janiri L (2020) The impact of climate change on mental health: a systematic descriptive review. Front Psychiatr. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00074
Clark T (2020) Ecological grief and anthropocene horror. Am Imago 77(1):61–80. https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2020.0003
Clayton S, Karazsia BT (2020) Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. J Environ Psychol 69:1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434
Comtesse H, Ertl V, Hengst SMC, Rosner R, Smid GE (2021) Ecological grief as a response to environmental change: a mental health risk or functional response? Int J Environ Res Public Health 18(2):1–10. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020734
Cunsolo A, Borish D, Harper SL, Snook J, Shiwak I, Wood M (2020a) “You can never replace the caribou”: inuit experiences of ecological grief from caribou declines. Am Imago 77(1):31–59. https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2020.0002
Cunsolo A, Ellis NR (2018) Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nat Clim Change 8(4):275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2
Cunsolo A, Harper SL, Minor K, Hayes K, Williams KG, Howard C (2020b) Ecological grief and anxiety: the start of a healthy response to climate change? Lancet Planet Health 4(7):e261–e263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3
Cunsolo A, Landman K (eds) (2017) Mourning nature: hope at the heart of ecological loss and grief. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal
Dickerson S, Cannon M, O’Neill B (2021) Climate change risks to human development in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of the literature. Clim Dev 14(6):571–589. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2021.1951644
Dodd W, Scott P, Howard C, Scott C, Rose C, Cunsolo A, Orbinski J (2018) Lived experience of a record wildfire season in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Can J Public Health 109(3):327–337. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-018-0070-5
D’Odorico P, Bhattachan A, Davis KF, Ravi S, Runyan CW (2013) Global desertification: drivers and feedbacks. Adv Water Resour 51:326–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.01.013
Ellis NR, Albrecht GA (2017) Climate change threats to family farmers’ sense of place and mental wellbeing: a case study from the Western Australian wheatbelt. Soc Sci Med 175:161–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.009
FAO (2020a) In brief to: the state of food and agriculture 2020a. Overcoming water challenges in agriculture. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb1441en
FAO (2020b) The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2020b: transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9692en
Fischbach RL, Herbert B (1997) Domestic violence and mental health: correlates and conundrums within and across cultures. Soc Sci Med 45(8):1161–1176. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(97)00022-1
Frimpong K, Oosthuizen J, Van Etten EJ (2014) Recent trends in temperature and relative humidity in Bawku East, Northern Ghana. J Geogr Geol 6(2):69–81. https://doi.org/10.5539/jgg.v6n2p69
Ghana Statistical Service (2013) 2010 population and housing census: regional analytical report Upper East Region. https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/2010_PHC_Regional_Analytical_Reports_Upper_East%20Region.pdf
Ghana Statistical Service (2018) Ghana living standard survey round seven (GLSS7): Main report. Ghana Statistical Service, Accra
Ghana Statistical Service (2020) 2017/18 Ghana census of agriculture: national report. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Ghana%20census%20of%20agriculture.pdf
Ghana Statistical Service (2021) Populations by regions: Upper East. https://statsghana.gov.gh/regionalpopulation.php?population=MTQ3NzkxOTU0MS4wODQ=&&UpperEast®id=8
Gough KV, Yankson PWK (2000) Land markets in African cities: the case of peri-urban Accra. Ghana Urban Stud 37(13):2485–2500. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980020080651
Hadley C, Patil CL (2006) Food insecurity in rural Tanzania is associated with maternal anxiety and depression. Am J Hum Biol 18(3):359–368. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.20505
Hulme M (2001) Climatic perspectives on Sahelian desiccation: 1973–1998. Global Environ Chang 11(1):19–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-3780(00)00042-X
Hulme M, Doherty R, Ngara T, New M, Lister D (2001) African climate change: 1900–2100. Clim Res 17(2):145–168. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr017145
Issahaku A-R, Campion BB, Edziyie R (2016) Rainfall and temperature changes and variability in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Earth Space Sci 3(8):284–294. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EA000161
Kansanga M, Andersen P, Atuoye K, Mason-Renton S (2018) Contested commons: agricultural modernization, tenure ambiguities and intra-familial land grabbing in Ghana. Land Use Policy 75:215–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.047
Kansanga M, Mkandawire P, Kuuire V, Luginaah I (2020) Agricultural mechanization, environmental degradation, and gendered livelihood implications in northern Ghana. Land Degrad Dev 31(11):1422–1440. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3490
Kansanga MM, Dinko DH, Nyantakyi-Frimpong H, Arku G, Luginaah I (2021) Scalar politics and black markets: the political ecology of illegal rosewood logging in Ghana. Geoforum 119:83–93
Kelly CI, Hancock CM, Grebby S, Marsh S, Ferreira VG, Hamm NAS (2022) Impact of meteorological conditions on water resources in the Upper East Region of Ghana using remotely-sensed and modelled hydrological data. J Hydrol: Reg Stud 42:101124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101124
Kwao B, Amoak D (2022) Does size really matter? The prevalence of NGOs and challenges to development in Northern Ghana. Norsk Geogr Tidsskr 76(3):149–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2022.2072383
Lanz K, Gerber J, Haller T (2018) Land grabbing, the state and chiefs: the politics of extending commercial agriculture in Ghana. Dev Change 49(6):1526–1552. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12429
Longhurst R (2010) Semi-structured interviews and focus groups. In: Clifford N, French S, Valentine G (eds) Key methods in geography. SAGE, Thousand Oaks, pp 103–115
McKay A, Pirttilä J, Tarp F (2015) Ghana: poverty reduction over thirty years. WIDER Working Paper 2015/052. https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2015-052.pdf
Mensah M, Fosu-Mensah BY (2020) Agriculture and gender roles in the semi-arid region of Ghana. West Afr J Appl Ecol 28(1):144–157. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/wajae/article/view/199533
Mohammed K, Batung E, Kansanga M, Nyantakyi-Frimpong H, Luginaah I (2021) Livelihood diversification strategies and resilience to climate change in semi-arid northern Ghana. Clim Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03034-y
Momsen J (2009) Gender and development. Routledge, London
Neuman WL (2014) Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches, 7th edn. Pearson, Harlow
Nyantakyi-Frimpong H (2019) Combining feminist political ecology and participatory diagramming to study climate information service delivery and knowledge flows among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana. Appl Geogr. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2019.102079
Obradovich N, Migliorini R, Paulus MP, Rahwah I (2018) Empirical evidence of mental health risks posed by climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115(43):10953–10958. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1801528115
Owusu AB, Cervone G, Luzzadder-Beach S (2013) Analysis of desertification in the upper east region (UER) of Ghana using remote sensing, field study, and local knowledge. Cartographica 48(1):22–37. https://doi.org/10.3138/carto.48.1.1065
Panu P (2020) Anxiety and the ecological crisis: an analysis of eco-anxiety and climate anxiety. Sustainability-Basel. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197836
Quaye-Ballard JA, Okrah TM, Andam-Akorful SA, Awotwi A, Osei-Wusu W, Antwi T, Tang X (2020a) Assessment of vegetation dynamics in Upper East Region of Ghana based on wavelet multi-resolution analysis. Model Earth Syst Environ 6(3):1783–1793. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-020-00789-8
Quaye-Ballard JA, Okrah TM, Andam-Akorful SA, Awotwi A, Antwi T, Osei-Wusu W et al (2020b) Spatiotemporal dynamics of rainfall in upper east region of Ghana, West Africa, 1981–2016. SN Appl Sci 2:1–12
Silverman D (2021) Doing qualitative research. SAGE, London
Stanturf JA, Warren ML, Charnley S, Polasky SC, Goodrick SL, Armah F, Nyako Y (2011) Ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment. USAID, Washington, DC
Steffen W, Richardson K, Rockström J et al (2015) Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855
Sterk G, Boardman J, Verdoodt A (2016) Desertification: history, causes and options for its control. Land Degrad Dev 27(8):1783–1787. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2525
Sutton PC, Anderson SJ, Costanza R, Kubiszewski I (2016) The ecological economics of land degradation: impacts on ecosystem. Ecol Econ 129:182–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.06.016
Trudell JP, Burnet ML, Ziegler BR, Luginaah I (2021) The impact of food insecurity on mental health in Africa: a systematic review. Soc Sci Med. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113953
Tsikata D, Yaro J (2011) Land market liberalization and trans-national commercial land deals in Ghana since the 1990s. In: Paper: International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, Brighton, April 6–8. https://www.future-agricultures.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf-archive/Dzodzi%20Tsikata%20and%20Joseph%20Yaro.pdf
Wrigley-Asante C, Agandin JBA (2015) From sunrise to sunset: male out-migration and its effect on left-behind women in the Builsa District of Ghana. Gend Issues 32(3):184–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-015-9139-0
Yengoh GT, Armah FA, Onumah EE, Odoi JO (2010) Trends in agriculturally-relevant rainfall characteristics for small-scale agriculture in Northern Ghana. J Agri Sci 2(3):3–16. https://doi.org/10.5539/jas.v2n3p3
Yiran GAB, Stringer LC (2016) Spatio-temporal analyses of impacts of multiple climatic hazards in a savannah ecosystem of Ghana. Clim Risk Manag 14:11–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2016.09.003
Yiran GAB, Stringer LC (2017) Adaptation to climatic hazards in the savannah ecosystem: improving adaptation policy and action. Environ Manag 60(4):665–678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0901-9
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the participants for sharing their insights. We are also grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers.
Funding
The authors received no funding for this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
DA and BK contributed to the conception and design of the study. DA wrote the first draft of the manuscript. DA, BK, TOI, KM, edited, and commented on previous versions of the manuscript. DA, BK, TOI, KM, read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval was obtained from the corresponding author institution’s Ethical Review Board (E.R.B.) that the procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent
Informed written consent was obtained from the study participants before they were enrolled on the study. Participation in the study was completely voluntary, and participants were given an opportunity to withdraw from the study at any point in time.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Amoak, D., Kwao, B., Ishola, T.O. et al. Climate change induced ecological grief among smallholder farmers in semi-arid Ghana. SN Soc Sci 3, 131 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00721-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00721-8