Sustainability of natural resource management: where do informal and formal strategies converge?

Abstract

Sustainability of natural resources has been an important part of people’s culture since creation. Managing these natural resources, particularly land, has been a major concern for a majority of peoples and governments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Land control and use as well as other natural resources has been the way to sustaining a population in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. There is direct and indirect links between natural resources, livelihoods and the environment. In areas of abundant natural resources such as fertile lands, good water sources, and forests in northern Ghana, livelihood is enhanced as the environment is sustained. In areas of chronic food shortages, natural resources are used to directly bridge the food gap. People derive different livelihoods from varied natural resources for their living. These resources need to be sustained through proper management strategies with the informal (traditional) knowledge systems complementing that of the formal knowledge systems because the people are over exploiting them. Communities therefore argue that, in order to have sustainable resources, there is the need to resort to informal and formal knowledge systems as they prevent resource depletion through traditional and modern laws. This is because, peoples’ livelihoods revolves around these resources. Promoting both strategies would enhance the sustainability of these resources in their communities. A combine ethnographic and survey techniques to gather both quantitative and qualitative data was employed during the research as a methodology. In addition, an extensive literature review was also used in the methodology. Issues emanating from the findings are that informal (traditional) knowledge systems complement that of formal knowledge systems in natural resource management. Natural resources in the study area are depleting as a result of population pressure. Conclusions drawn from the study show that, traditional knowledge systems constitute the major form of management strategies with the formal system the least in the study area. It is recommended that local knowledge system and that of modern knowledge systems need to collaborate effectively and continuously in their strategies in solving this problem of resource depletion in the area.

KEY WORDS: sustainability, natural resource management, strategies, informal (traditional), formal, Lawra District