Throughout the country, environmental pressures are becoming increasingly difficult to overlook. Flooding disrupts cities after brief rainfall, heatwaves intensify, forests shrink, water bodies decline, and coastal towns lose land to advancing tides. These changes affect food systems, public health, local economies, and long-term development.
Yet as these challenges deepen, nature continues to offer solutions that are practical, affordable, and already proven across many communities. Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) provide a powerful pathway for building resilience while supporting sustainable development.
Urban flooding has become a recurring event, especially in fast-growing cities where wetlands and green spaces have disappeared, leaving drainage systems struggling to cope. Agricultural lands across the country are also under pressure as soil fertility declines due to erosion, bushfires, and unsustainable farming practices. As a result, smallholder farmers face reduced yields and higher costs. At the coast, rising sea levels and erosion threaten homes, fishing infrastructure, and entire communities. Meanwhile, biodiversity loss weakens the natural systems that people rely on for food, water, and climate stability.
Nature-Based Solutions draw on natural processes to address these environmental challenges in ways that generate both social and economic benefits. Restoring wetlands can reduce urban flooding, improve water quality, and enhance groundwater recharge, helping secure water resources for the long term. Agroforestry and ecological farming revive soils, increase productivity, and build resilience within food systems. Along the coastline, restoring mangroves and dunes strengthens natural defenses, reduces erosion, and protects communities from storm surges. In urban areas, expanding vegetation and green corridors lowers temperatures, improves air quality, and creates healthier public spaces.
Across the country, communities are already demonstrating what NbS can achieve. In northern Ghana, natural tree regeneration is helping farmers restore degraded land and improve crop yields. Coastal communities are replanting mangroves to protect shorelines and revive fisheries. Youth groups and schools are transforming small open spaces into green areas that improve their local environment. Traditional leaders continue to protect sacred groves and water bodies, preserving both ecological and cultural heritage.
Nature-based efforts succeed when they are centered on people. Community involvement ensures that restored ecosystems are valued, protected, and maintained. Traditional knowledge enriches modern techniques, making interventions more meaningful and sustainable. When communities lead restoration and stewardship, Nature-Based Solutions become part of everyday life rather than short-term projects.
Ghana has a unique opportunity to strengthen resilience by integrating Nature-Based Solutions into development planning. This includes restoring wetlands and forests, supporting farmers with ecological practices, protecting coastal ecosystems, and prioritizing greener cities. Community leadership, cultural knowledge, and local innovation must guide these efforts if they are to last.
Nature is not a barrier to development; it is a partner. Many of the solutions needed to build a stronger, more resilient future already exist in the country’s forests, rivers, wetlands, and coastlines. As Ghana navigates increasing environmental and climate-related challenges, Nature-Based Solutions offer a clear reminder that the answers we seek are already growing. Our task now is to protect them, restore them, and work with them to secure a sustainable future.
References
Food and Agriculture Organization. (2022). The state of the world’s forests 2022: Forest pathways for green recovery and building inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies. FAO. https://www.fao.org/3/cb9360en/cb9360en.pdf
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2022). Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. IPCC. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
United Nations Environment Programme. (2023). State of finance for nature: Time to shift to nature-positive investment. UNEP. https://www.unep.org/resources/state-finance-nature
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
World Bank. (2022). Ghana country environmental analysis: Environmental priorities and climate resilience. World Bank. https://documents.worldbank.org
World Bank. (2019). West Africa coastal areas management program (WACA): Resilience investment project. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/waca
World Resources Institute. (2021). Nature-based solutions in Africa: Policy, practice, and investment pathways. WRI. https://www.wri.org
