Background (Personal)
Yaw holds a PhD in Sustainability Science from the United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan.  He joined the CLIMCOCOA project in September 2017 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Prior to this position, Yaw worked as a Project Researcher with the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan. Yaw’s scientific research area is the commons and focuses specifically on the nexus between climate change and ecosystem service, sustainable development theory and practice, rural livelihood systems and resource use vulnerability and resilience. In the face of increasing vulnerability of rural households to environmental changes, his goal is to undertake solution-oriented research to generate outcomes, which will challenge stakeholders’ including local communities, development practitioners and policymakers to appreciate, advance and apply resilient, practical and sustainable mitigative and adaptive strategies to environmental challenges. In much of his recent work, he tries to explore the implications of households (rural and urban) actions on ecosystem services supply, utilization, management and conservations across space and time. This is a follow up on his doctoral research, on community-based assessment of ecosystem services in semi-arid Ghana by inventorying critical provisioning services’ role in livelihood sustenance of poor, climate sensitive and vulnerable households and communities.
 
Research Stay in Denmark
My research stay in Copenhagen between November 10 and December 8, 2017 aimed at achieving a number of objectives. As the newest member of the project, the stay was to help me familiarize with the status and future plans and activities of the CLIMCOCOA project through meets with Danish colleagues from the University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University. The stay was also to enable me contribute to the planning of pilot and main fieldwork for PhD candidates and Project as a whole. In addition, the stay offered me the opportunity to use the library resources of the University of Copenhagen to undertake literature review.
During, my 28-day stay, with support from the Danish project partners including Prof. Anders Raebild, Dr. Aske Skovmand Bosselmann and Dr. Mette Fog Olwig, I was able to achieve all the objectives planned for this research stay. I participated actively in scheduled meetings at the IFRO, University of Copenhagen. I also made time to use the University’s library facilities. Prior to my use of the library, an orientation had been organized for me and the three PhD candidates on the project from Ghana. Because of this stay, I had the opportunity to interact and engage in active debate with other faculty members and staff of the University of Copenhagen, thus enabling me to expand my network and social capital. In addition, I met up with a number of Ghanaian students living and studying in Denmark. We engaged in fruitful discussions on the way forward for the socio-economic and academic development of Ghana.
Last but not the least, the research stay offered me the chance to learn, understand and appreciate Danish culture and  lifestyle because of  encounters with locals  and visits to shops, museums and other touristic centres. I was satisfied with the stay and would like to express my sincere thanks to the DANIDA for financially supporting the CLIMCOCOA project and specifically the Danida Fellowship Centre for providing accommodation during my stay.