Community Resource Management

Mole National Park, the largest protected ecosystem in Ghana, is bordered on all sides by nearly 30 rural communities that rely on the natural environment around them for their livelihood. The daily struggle of these people to survive in the face of poverty is often at odds with efforts to preserve and conserve Ghana’s valuable savannah and wildlife populations. Years of basic human subsistence activities, like hunting and tree-cutting for fuel and lumber, have resulted in severe land degradation and biodiversity loss within Mole, where the line between park and natural space free for the taking is blurred.

Thanks to help from the Drylands/Ecosystems Grant Program of the Netherlands Committee - IUCN, A Rocha Ghana and the Collaborative Resource Management Unit of Mole National Park have been working since 2005 to create opportunities for alternative, sustainable livelihood in two villages adjoining the park: Mognore and Murugu. Developed under close collaboration with stakeholders at all levels—from the District Assembly to village elders and ordinary citizens—these Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) have established legal and constitutional frameworks that guide the process toward integration of natural resource management with already existing local production systems; effectively making communities active managers rather than passive participants in their environment.

Where traditional honey gathering methods regularly contribute to dangerous bush fires, as the trees hosting beehives are usually burnt down to avoid encounters with angry stingers, the CREMA villages have elected to learn more sustainable bee-keeping practices and marketing skills with the help of A Rocha Ghana. To date, 98 people own 300 hives as a result of these efforts. Honey profits have subsequently increased by 140% and fire belts have been successfully established by these CREMA communities. Similarly, where traditional gari-processing and shea-nut butter extraction methods were labour and resource intensive, with the introduction of low-cost technology from A Rocha Ghana, women in the CREMAs have been able to effectively set up cooperative processing centres for these goods. Their productivity has been greatly increased for less labour and less strain on the environment, while simultaneously helping to reduce gender imbalance in manual labour tasks. In addition, where sales and profits in these communities was once limited by lack of effective, reliable transportation, the introduction of donkeys and carts has opened up the CREMA areas and their products to new markets.

Along with the establishment of these alternative livelihood options and tools, more formal environmental education has also been integral to the CREMA process. Dramas and workshops emphasizing bush-fire prevention, tree management, and endangered wildlife species have been presented in many communities bordering Mole National Park, especially during festival times, to appeal to children as well as adults. By thus empowering entire communities to be responsible stewards of their own land, the CREMA project has successfully begun to take some of the pressure off Mole National Park, while the economic and environmental situation of the people and communities in the area has also improved. It is hoped that similar results will be achieved in the work currently under way to launch two new CREMAs in Kaden and Yazori, with programme additions there including micro-loans to women, and introduction of Grasscutter domestication.