Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

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some occasions exacerbating divisions, on others encouraging cooperation. (This may occur, for
example, where land is in relative surplus; those who control land may prefer to hire it out to
temporary migrants, rather than to cede it to relatives on a long-term basis).
Secondly, this region has been much affected by successive government policies for agricultural
modernisation, primarily through the development of large-scale mechanised state farms. Though
the latter have generally failed, their influence is still felt in a number of ways. Where land was
stumped to facilitate access by agricultural machinery, this has affected the cropping systems
which it can subsequently support, their needs in terms of fertiliser application, and the labour
required to exploit them. New road facilities have also increased market access, contributing to
the emergence of one regional centre, Techiman, as the nation’s major wholesale agricultural
market. And the migrant labour which was initially brought in to clear the state farms, was
subsequently released onto the local market, and this has biased farming systems and resource
management arrangements in line with the increased labour availability.
Thirdly, the Government of Ghana has recently embarked on policies of local government
administrative devolution and participatory forest management, which proceed from certain
assumptions about the integrity of the rural community, but which are likely, in practice, to both
reflect and influence its diversity and complexity.
Local government decentralisation, in its present manifestation, has its origins in the reforms first
introduced in 1987 by the PNDC (military) regime, but since confirmed by successive civilian
governments. While devolution is still far from complete, there is in process a progressive
transfer of decision-making and legislative control to district-level authorities for many aspects of
environmental management. The exceptions are those concerned with timber values (which
remain under the control of the national Ghana Forestry Commission) and land allocation (which,
in most areas, is the personal prerogative of the local chief, acting in the name of the traditional
stool authorities). In an environment in which the strength and nature of claims over natural
resources are heavily influenced by origins, ethnicity, age, gender, affinity and length of
residence, this makes for the emergence of a complex arena of negotiation, in which competing
parties with differential access to, and influence with, local legislators, seek to pursue their own
interests in competition and cooperation with others. In so doing, they invoke various
environmental and social principles. These in turn influence the subsequent evolution of
institutions and policy.
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