Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

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4.1.20 Managing the environment under decentralisation
Environmental management has acquired a high profile in Ghana at all levels, including the
districts. Districts have responded to pressures to implement policies and create environmental
institutions, committees and bye-laws.
In the Brong Ahafo, this is evident in a number of ways, including the creation of new bye-laws
and procedures – for example, to regulate:
! the use of fire on farm and in the bush;
! charcoal production;
! hunting;
It has also led to the creation of new institutions to manage the environment, including:
! District environmental sub-committees
! Fire volunteers or ‘Fire Mobisquads’
However, these institutions and decision-making processes are often ill-served by the available
information systems. Environmental policy tends to be informed by the same grand narratives
earlier discussed, which draw on received wisdom about the environment not on the actual
conditions on the ground. This in turn encourages a top-down approach in which rural producers
are cajoled to change their ways. Unsurprisingly, the latter tend to feel alienated from policy
frameworks, and distrustful of policy processes.
4.1.21 Structures of decentralised environmental policy
The framework for the current structure of decentralisation in Ghana was established by PNDC
Law 207 of 1988. This enacted a new structure of devolved local government, within a three-tier
structure of Regional coordinating Councils, District Assemblies and Town or Area Councils and
Unit Committees.
The Local Government Act of 1994 (Act 462), the National Development Planning Commission
Act of 1994 and the National Development Planning (System) Act of 1994 establish the
framework for development planning.
Annex 3 of this report reviews the implications of these structures and procedures in detail.
Below, we consider only their major implications for the practices of environmental management
in the districts.
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