The ACT Liberia Forum over the weekend, commenced community awareness activities for a joint Climate ADAPTATION PROJECT (PILOT) in Salayea, Lofa County. The project aims to strengthen community resilience and adaptation capacities through sustainable climate-smart agriculture production, water resources, and land management. ACT-Liberia forum is the Action of Churches Together Liberia forum. The forum is the Liberia chapter of ACT-Alliance Global. Meanwhile, ACT-Liberia forum comprises of two religious intuitions. The Lutheran Development Service, the Development arm of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, and the Liberia Council of Churches.
There is no doubt about the threats posed by climate change to the existence of mankind. In the last three months of 2023 and the first two months of 2024 for example, central Liberia experienced a prolonged dry season which interrupted agriculture production and other livelihood activities for the rural poor. This prolonged dry season created uncertainty about when farmers should sow seeds and caused many smallholders to miss their summer garden activities in fear of crop failure due to scarcity of irrigation water. Most of the irrigation water in Liberia depends largely on
rainfall. Vegetable growers in particular lose income in the process and are concerned about what the future holds for the variability caused by climate change in their cropping calendar. During the consultative process, villagers in the project areas indicated that the flow of creeks and streams that feed the bigger water bodies and wetlands had either dried out and cut completely or the flows were very low and slow. This dryness continued until the start of the rain in the middle of May 2024. There are many factors that make Liberia vulnerable to climate change including, but not limited
to its dependency on ideal climatic conditions for agriculture and other natural wealth for overall economic growth. Besides these natural factors, Liberia has limited fiscal space and a weak business environment for generating revenue for its social and development programs. The nation has inadequate infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads coupled with low technology and human resource base thus requiring a robust project that will critically consider its vulnerability to climate change through the lens of risks and opportunities associated with its overall development agenda.
