Local Resource Management in the Forest-Savanna Transition Zone: The Case of Wenchi District, Ghana

Abstract

"In the forest-savanna transition zone of Ghana, environmental issues have long been a focus of policy attention. This paper examines interactions between people and vegetation change in the Wenchi area of Brong Ahafo region ... part of the northern forest-savanna transition zone, in the context of both ecological and policy debates about the nature of environmental problems there....

"Since early colonial times, the dominant view among scientists and administrators has been that human activities, such as farming, logging and bush fires, cause progressive savannisation of forests. In contrast, other, more recent views suggest that the forest-savanna boundary has remained relatively stable over historical times, and even that human activities can be associated with the formation of forests in savanna environments. While forestry policy has conventionally been based on removing local users' control over land and trees in favour of the State, recent policy discussions have focussed on the advantages of, and prospects for, forms of 'collaborative' forest management involving local communities.

"This paper aims to contribute to these debates and to the forging of effective links between them, by specifying more precisely how particular human activities can be linked to particular patterns of environmental change. Applying the tools of environmental entitlements analysis to the cases of food cropping and woodfuel production in the study area, it examines how the participation of different social actors, shaped by particular institutional arrangements, can lead to contrasting ecological outcomes for forest-savanna dynamics. This, in turn, carries important implications for Ghana's recent forest policy moves which, while welcome, have sometimes been premised on overly static, homogenous notions of 'community.'

"Before proceeding to the case studies, some background discussion of ecology and society in the Wenchi area is necessary, as is an outline of the changes in Ghana's forest policy."