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Analysis of the management and sustainability of natural resources in Ghana reveals that indigenous knowledge systems have played major roles. The aim of this paper was to assess how indigenous knowledge systems used for sacred biological resources have resulted in the sustainability of resources in three selected communities in the Upper West Region. The study used researcher-administered questionnaires, focused group discussions and key informant interviews to collect data from traditional authorities, and community members. The concept of worldview was used to depict the ‘indigenous knowledge makeup’ of the inhabitants in northern Ghana. The study revealed that taboos and totems are the key indigenous knowledge system used in conserving biological resources. Whilst the traditional political institution plays out as custodian of the knowledge systems, sanctions in the form of fines, banishment and punishment by the gods are used to deter local communities from flouting the indigenous knowledge systems. Based on the perceptions of the respondents, indigenous knowledge systems were found to be very effective in conserving biodiversity. However, formal education, Christianity, Islam and modernisation emerged as key challenges which threaten the sustainability of existing indigenous knowledge systems and their potentials for biodiversity conservation in northern Ghana. The study recommends that the Forestry Division of Ghana, Forestry Commission and Ghana Tourism Authority integrate indigenous knowledge systems into modern laws and policies for effective conservation and management of biodiversity in Ghana.

This study primarily presents a contribution analysis of the outcomes of the expanded forest plantation programme (EFPP) as a community-based forest governance intervention to enhance household food security. A cross sectional research design with simple random sampling technique was used to select the study sites and respondents. In all, four (4) out of ten (10) settlements implementing the EFPP in the Asante Akyim South District of Ghana were selected. Questionnaires were administered to 80 beneficiaries proportionally selected from the study sites and in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders implementing the programme. The discussion of the results was informed by the theory of change analysis framework to assess the contribution of the programme to household food security. The theory of change tool helped to identify progress towards the achievement of potential and probable outcomes of the programme. The findings reveal that the availability of food crops at the household level and the district at large increased through the EFPP. Between the years 2011 and 2013, 2763.1426 Metric Tonnes (Mt) of food crops were produced from 444.4046 ha of land in the district from the programme. Also, an average of GH¢ 229 ($72) comprising both monthly allowances received for planting and nurturing trees and income derived from the sale of food crops produced increased the economic power and livelihood outcomes of beneficiaries. This has had a contributing effect on the physical availability and accessibility of food crops at the household level. Hence, scaling up the EFPP to cover many beneficiaries, and a budget allocation for the food crop production component of the programme through the provision of improved crop seeds for interplanting would promote food production and security at the household and district levels.

Even though development is about change, conservative rurality associated with the refusal of rural societies to submit to technological, livelihood and socio-cultural changes has not received adequate focus in development studies and practice. Using the case of selected rural communities in Ghana and their response to the mass cocoa spraying intervention of government, the paper discusses the determining factors that influence innovation adoption decisions of rural farmers. The study followed mixed methodology with the application of Relative Importance Index to establish the order of importance of major factors that influence farmers’ innovation adoption decisions in the study area. We argue that, innovation adoption decisions of rural societies are rooted in their awareness, cost and benefit factors and applicability of introduced technology rather than the myth of adherence to socio-cultural heritage.

Despite the growing recognition that poverty and environmental degradation remain a threat to achieving sustainable development goals, poverty–environment relationship is rarely explored. Crucial is the changing geography of the Lake Bosomtwe basin of Ghana. In this paper we examine how intensive and extensive fishing and farming in the name of livelihood sustainability, poverty reduction and human well-being undermine ecological health within the lake basin by subjecting data collected from 250 respondents to factor analysis. From a geo-referenced and processed classification of remotely sensed and GIS images over three periods using the maximum likelihood classifier algorithm, the results showed that, built up areas within the lake basin increased from 543.64 ha in 1986 to 7682.97 ha in 2008. Dense forest and rangeland decreased from 8698.95 and 22,660.88 ha over the same period to 1416.33 and 8577.99 ha in 2008 respectively. Other indicators such as water levels and fish stock also saw drastic reduction. The results further showed that major changes in the ecological landscape of the basin over the years are the outcomes of both direct and indirect drivers such as slash and burn agriculture, unregulated development of tourism facilities, overfishing, use of illegal fishing gear, poverty, annual overturn, climate change, market and institutional failures. Hence, a paradigm shift from the traditional site level forest restoration efforts to a landscape level, and a “conservation first principle” as a top priority in planning for the future, as well as focus on non-farm activities to reduce pressure on the natural capital are required.