Villamor, G. B., and B. K. Badmos. 2015. Grazing game: a learning tool for adaptive management in response to climate variability in semiarid areas of Ghana. Ecology and Society 21(1):39.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08139-210139

Soil loss is not limited to change from forest or woodland to other land uses/covers. It may occur when there is agricultural land-use/cover modification or conversion. Soil loss may influence loss of carbon from the soil, hence implication on greenhouse gas emission. Changing land use could be considered actually or potentially successful in adapting to climate change, or may be considered maladaptation if it creates environmental degradation. In semi-arid northern Ghana, changing agricultural practices have been identified amongst other climate variability and climate change adaptation measures. Similarly, some of the policies aimed at improving farm household resilience toward climate change impact might necessitate land use change. The heterogeneity of farm household (agents) cannot be ignored when addressing land use/cover change issues, especially when livelihood is dependent on land. This paper therefore presents an approach for simulating soil loss from an agro-ecosystem using multi-agent simulation (MAS). We adapted a universal soil loss equation as a soil loss sub-model in the Vea-LUDAS model (a MAS model). Furthermore, for a 20-year simulation period, we presented the impact of agricultural land-use adaptation strategy (maize cultivation credit i.e., maize credit scenario) on soil loss and compared it with the baseline scenario i.e., business-as-usual. Adoption of maize as influenced by maize cultivation credit significantly influenced agricultural land-use change in the study area. Although there was no significant difference in the soil loss under the tested scenarios, the incorporation of human decision-making in a temporal manner allowed us to view patterns that cannot be seen in single step modeling. The study shows that opening up cropland on soil with a high erosion risk has implications for soil loss. Hence, effective measures should be put in place to prevent the opening up of lands that have high erosion risk.

Perception influences the manner people address the risks and opportunities associated with climate change and this in turn influences the manner people respond to the impact(s). Based on questionnaire data collected from 197 respondents, this paper examined public perception about climate change and the socioeconomic/demographic factors influencing their perception in Moba Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria. To establish these factors, socioeconomic/ demographic variables (sex, age, marital status, educational level and occupation) were regressed on the climate change perception of the people using a binary logistic regression approach. Education level (P = 0.000) and occupation (p = 0.079) significantly influenced peoples’ perception about climate change in the study area. The result indicates that there is higher likelihood to understand and improve perception about climate change as educational level increases. Also, as one gets involved in climate sensitive occupation, there is higher likelihood to understand and improve perception about climate change. This study suggests expanding access to climate change education can enhance peoples’ understanding about climate change and their ability to relate to consequences of climate change impacts which may influence the willingness and capacity to adopt and implement adaptive measures to climate change. Further, continuous public sensitization about climate change will ensure the knowledge about climate change is not limited to only those who are impacted directly.