Biocultural Diversity and Natural Resources Management in Ghana

In Ghana, discourses in the drive for an appropriate, effective and more sustainable natural resource management remains a challenge to both research and policy. Existing policies and debates have ignore or undervalue the vital and intricate relationship between community people and their natural environment which shape and define the traditional cosmology of indigenous people and influence their worlviews and the way natural resources are managed. Although some attempts have been made to integrate both formal and informal management sytems and practices, they fail to properly incorporate the worldviews and spirituality of local cultures in their approach. Using multiple case studies of indigenous cultures of the Upper West Region this book assesses and discusses the intricate relationships in indigenous cultures and the opportunities that these relationship offer in the search for sustainable natural resource management alternatives using a biocultural lens. It would be of enormous value to students and professionals both in and outside the academia as long as the search for sustainable natural resource management option in new globalising system.