Esi Buobasa (Fuveme,

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

) is a Ghanaian fishmonger, environmental migrant, and climate activist. In 2023, Buobasa was distinguished as one of the most influential women in the world according to the

100 Women (BBC) ''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's wome ...

for her efforts to build resilience against climate change.

Career

Buobasa was born and raised in Fuveme, a coastal village near

Keta Keta is a coastal town and the capital of the Keta Municipal District in the Volta Region of Ghana. Keta was an important trading post between the 14th and the late 20th centuries. The town attracted the interest of the Danish, because they fe ...

. Between 2000 and 2010, the territory, located between

Keta Lagoon Keta Lagoon, also called Anlo-Keta lagoon, is the largest of the over 90 lagoons that cover the 550 km stretch of the coastline of Ghana. This lagoon is 126.13 km in length. It is located in the eastern coast of Ghana and separated from ...

and the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea (French language, French: ''Golfe de Guinée''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Golfo de Guinea''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Golfo da Guiné'') is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez i ...

, eroded to practically a thin line of sand due to the rising sea level. The town also is periodically flooded by the

Volta River The Volta River (, , ) is the main Drainage system (geomorphology), river system in the West African country of Ghana. It flows south into Ghana from the Bobo-Dioulasso Department, Bobo-Dioulasso highlands of Burkina Faso. The three main part ...

. The loss of buildings and increasingly frequent cycloans and floods forced Buobasa, a fisherman, with her husband and five children, to migrate inland and recreate their lives. However, this deprived the family of their main source of income: fishing. To mitigate the socioeconomic impacts of the environmental migration, Buobasa founded an association to support female fishermen in her circumstance. The alliance sought to train them for other jobs and provide economic recovery. It also provided a resistance fund to finance damage or loss of income due to further storms or climate disaster. Buobasa's leadership led to her inclusion in BBC's 2023 list of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buobasa, Esi Fishmongers (people) Climate activists Ghanaian activists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)