People in southern Ghana often ignore environmental policies that limit important livelihoods. Enforcing policies over large areas is too costly to be effective. The result is inconsistent, short-term enforcement campaigns, which are ineffective in controlling natural resource use and cause resentment and anxiety among local populations.

If environmental policies are not accepted by the people they affect, they are unlikely to achieve their aims. In southern Ghana, a wide range of environmental policies affect forests and the activities of people living in them. Research from the University of Reading, UK, and the Crops Research Institute, Ghana, considers these policies and their impacts on local people. The research looks at policies written as paper documents, their implementation and people’s perceptions of them.

The research shows:

• People in southern Ghana are generally aware of the need to conserve resources, but they only obey controls when these do not excessively limit livelihood activities.
• When economic or other pressures are more severe, policies are considered ‘flexible’ by local people and are regularly ignored.
• Enforcement only works where there is strong local support for a policy. In practice, this means that environmental policies have not had much effect, since those likely to have a negative impact on livelihoods are ignored.

Only two environmental policies have been effectively implemented. A forestry policy that attempts to shift the management of off-reserve forests from the timber industry to communities has had some success, although commercial loggers retain significant power. A land-use policy supporting traditional practices, such as using dead wood for charcoal, has also been implemented. Importantly, these both benefit local communities.

With a lack of enforcement of most environmental policies, forests and other resources are becoming degraded. People living on forest margins depend almost entirely on natural resources, so avoiding further degradation is essential. How can officials introduce policies that protect forest resources and local livelihoods, but will also be accepted and supported locally so that implementation is successful?

Decentralisation of policy-making is one way to gain local support. This involves the use of local knowledge on environmental processes and economic activities to determine resource-use limits. Ghana has many advantages for successful decentralisation; strong local government structures and good local understanding and respect for forest reserves. One successful recent scheme is Community Forestry Committees. These local decision-making bodies understand the reliance of local people on natural resources. More importantly, they are respected by local people and therefore likely to develop policies that are accepted and implemented.

However, the process of decentralising environmental policy decisions has had mixed results in other countries. Important lessons from these experiences must be applied in Ghana:

• Local policy-making is prone to influence and interference by powerful local elites. To meet wider local needs, strong legal rights must be held by the community so that people with existing power are not the only ones able to form policies.
• Sufficient funds must be available to support and enforce policies.
• Organisations and processes supporting public decision-making are necessary, such as opportunities for all people to make their opinions known.
• Civil servants and others taking decisions must be open and accountable for their decisions.

Source(s):
‘Protecting the Forest or the People? Environmental Policies and Livelihoods in the Forest Margins of Southern Ghana’, World Development, 32, 11, by S. Wiggins, K. Marfo and V. Anchirinah, 2004

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 27 April 2005

Further Information:
Steve Wiggins
Rural Policy and Environment Group
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London
SE1 7JD
UK

Tel: + 44 (0) 207 922 0300
Fax: + 44 (0) 207 922 0399
Contact the contributor: s.wiggins@odi.org.uk

ODI's Rural Policy and Governance Group, UK

At the time of the research, Steve Wiggins was at the University of Reading, UK

University of Reading, UK

Other related links:
'Using information for better environmental management in India'

'What are policy processes? Why do they matter? Understanding environmental policy change'

'Joint forest management in India: a sapling with feeble roots?'

Forest Stewardship Council UK

Forests, Trees and People Programme and Network