Emmanuel Opuni-Frimpong

Sacred groves are rich biodiversity hotspots serving as an important habitat for conserving species and providing ecosystem goods and services to meet societal needs. Despite the benefits these sacred groves offer, they are threatened by anthropogenic stressors coupled with climate change impacts, thereby limiting their maximum ability to offer essential ecological and cultural services. On a climatic gradient, we have explored differences in tree attributes (diversity and composition) and how they are shaped by multiple drivers of land‐use change and climatic factors (rainfall and temperature) which drive underlying soil conditions in different sacred groves. These sacred grooves studied are the Mintimrim Kwaye, Antobia, Boako, Nsoatre Botene and Pimpimgyae sacred groves. Tree species diversity and composition differed between the sacred groves with those located in the forest zones more diverse than those located in the dry semideciduous or the savannah zones. These differences in tree attributes were mainly driven by the various degrees of anthropogenic stressors (mining, agricultural activities, logging and wildfire) coupled with variations in climatic factors driving underlying soil conditions. It is quite evident the role climate plays which highlights how tree species react in terms of distribution and composition in this era of climate uncertainty. This therefore calls for the need for conservation efforts to mitigate the consequences of climate change impacts on biodiversity and human societies.

Urban green spaces are linked to good human health and well-being, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, life on land and under water, as well as offering a platform for quality nature-based education. Their efficient management will no doubt be necessary if strides are to be made in efforts to protect biodiversity and enhance ecosystem service delivery in urban areas. This will, in part, require building the capacity of community members as citizen scientists to take up conservation roles. This study explored the levels of biodiversity and the proxy-based ecosystem service potential of urban green spaces in Sunyani, Ghana, using citizen science approaches. The green spaces accessed were the University of Energy and Natural Resources Wildlife Sanctuary and Arboretum, the Sunyani Parks and Gardens, the Sunyani Residency Park, and the Sunyani Senior High School Woodlot. The different levels of biodiversity (trees, arthropods) and ecosystem services were observed for the five green spaces assessed, with a significant relationship observed between arthropod communities and vegetation variables. Our results showed that citizen scientists perceived urban green spaces to supply more significant provisioning and regulating services than any other ecosystem services, even though they were highly dissatisfied with how green spaces are managed. The children’s perception of the composition of nature was slightly narrow, as they largely centered on plants and animals only. Even so, their awareness of the value of nature was high, as were the threats of human activities to nature. Citizen science approaches could complement biodiversity studies in data-deficient regions; however, collected data may require additional verification and validation from experts for conclusive and better inferences.

Any program intended to equip the populace, particularly young people, to combat climate change and its repercussions must include education. As crucial stakeholders in education, teachers have the primary responsibility of preparing young people to deal with the effects of climate change. In two districts of Ghana’s Bono region, the study assessed SHS teachers’ viewpoints on climate change and their willingness to include climate change concerns in classes. The degree to which climate change was incorporated into the syllabi of selected disciplines was also assessed. For this study, data was collected from a hundred (n = 100) SHS teachers from 10 of the 15 schools in the study area using a simple random sampling method. The Pearson chi-square test was used to examine the association between the subject content and teachers’ desire to teach climate change. The data were analyzed using SPSS (v25). The findings demonstrated that teachers’ readiness to educate about climate change was influenced by the subjects they taught. Subjects that were not science-based provided little information on climate change to teachers. Climate change is addressed in many areas in Integrated Science and Social Studies, and it is a core topic for all students. Climate change should be taught using an interdisciplinary approach, and in-service training for teachers could be beneficial.