Key messages

• Ghana’s policy framework is geared towards large-scale, near-term development, raising questions regarding environmental impacts and related socioeconomic reverberations. Concerns surrounding future development plans stem from Ghana’s past and present challenges with competing land uses.
• Ghana has many policies and management schemes that support reconciling conservation and development needs; however, barriers to implementation persist.
• Challenge areas include: establishing a transparent change logic that is understood and endorsed across sectors and stakeholder groups. This requires identifying common concern entry points and clarifying rights and responsibilities.
• We suggest a greater commitment to these principles and the adoption of a landscape approach hold potential to enhance social and ecological outcomes in Ghana. Engaging with Ghana’s existing Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) program is an opportunity in this regard.

Authors: O’Connor, A.; Djoudi, H.; Zida, M.

Subjects: landscape, environmental policy, development policy, conservation, resources management, community involvement, stakeholders

Publication type: Brief, Publication

Year: 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17528/cifor/007953