Changes in Beliefs and Perceptions About the Natural Environment in the Forest-Savanna Transitional Zone of Ghana: The Influence of Religion

21 Pages Posted: 23 Feb 2010

See all articles by Paul Sarfo-Mensah

Paul Sarfo-Mensah

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science - Bureau of Integrated Rural Development and Technology

William Oduro

Wildlife and Range Management, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, CANR, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana

Date Written: February 22, 2010

Abstract

The potential of traditional natural resources management for biodiversity conservation and the improvement of sustainable rural livelihoods is no longer in doubt. In sub-Saharan Africa, extensive habitat destruction, degradation, and severe depletion of wildlife, which have seriously reduced biodiversity and undermined the livelihoods of many people in rural communities, have been attributed mainly to the erosion of traditional strategies for natural resources management. In Ghana, recent studies point to an increasing disregard for traditional rules and regulations, beliefs and practices that are associated with natural resources management. Traditional natural resources management in many typically indigenous communities in Ghana derives from changes in the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards Tumi, the traditional belief in super natural power suffused in nature by Onyame, the Supreme Creator Deity. However, this is closely entwined with ecological, demographic and economic factors. Whilst these factors have driven the need to over-exploit natural resources, a situation which threatens the sustainability of community forests including sacred groves, religion has been used to justify such actions. This paper explores changes in Tumi and the sustainability of sacred groves in the forest-savanna transitional zone in Ghana. It would confirm that changes in traditional animist beliefs, such as tumi, which informs the worldview of local people and underlies traditional natural resources management, is mainly due to the advances made by Christianity and Islam.

Keywords: Tumi, Sacred Groves, Forest-Savanna Transition, Sustainability, Traditional, Christianity, Islam

JEL Classification: Z1

Suggested Citation

Sarfo-Mensah, Paul and Oduro, William, Changes in Beliefs and Perceptions About the Natural Environment in the Forest-Savanna Transitional Zone of Ghana: The Influence of Religion (February 22, 2010). FEEM Working Paper No. 8.2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1557119 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1557119

Paul Sarfo-Mensah (Contact Author)

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science - Bureau of Integrated Rural Development and Technology ( email )

Faculty of Law
Faculty of Law
Kumasi, AK +233
Ghana
00 233 51 60406 (Phone)
00 233 51 60137 (Fax)

William Oduro

Wildlife and Range Management, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, CANR, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana ( email )

Faculty of Law
Faculty of Law
Kumasi, AK Ashanti Region +233
Ghana

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