At the Edge of the Sea: Coastal Erosion, Asset Loss, and Management Challenges—Evidence from Selected Coastal Communities in Ghana, West-Africa

Coastal erosion compromises lives and livelihoods in many coastal states. While growing research initiatives are focusing on coastal erosion, the extent to which it affects people’s livelihoods and coastal assets in West Africa received limited attention. This study therefore investigates the impacts of coastal erosion on coastal assets, and the management challenges faced by local authorities in addressing erosion-related issues in coastal Ghana. Data was collected using a mixed-method approach, including in-depth interviews (n = 15), focus group discussions (n = 8) and quantitative survey (n = 585). Results showed that some major human activities like land encroachment, collection of defense boulders, beach sand mining, and beach pebble mining undertaken in both small noncommercial and small commercial scales exacerbate coastal erosion in the study communities. In total, 99% of people investigated were aware of coastal erosion in their communities. Beach and fish landing sites were the most impacted assets to coastal erosion (RII= 0.90), followed by coconut trees (RII= 0.87), boats (RII= 0.76), houses (RII= 0.71) and lands (RII= 0.71). We argue that hybrid protection strategies, with both hard structures and soft development structures, are needed to help improve upon the coast while protecting coastal assets and maintaining biodiversity.