Stakeholder conflicts and sustainable forest management in the Assin North and South districts

Abstract

The Assin North and South districts are well endowed with forests and wildlife resources. However, conflicts among the numerous stakeholders over these resources are leading to the unsustainable management of these resources. It has been established that several factors account for the unsustainable management of the forests and wildlife resources. Though several approaches have been applied by the resource managers to promote sustainable resource management, the conflict among the numerous stakeholders over these resources still remain a serious problem in the study area. The research was designed not only to find out the causes of the conflicts but also to determine the· stakeholders' perspective on the solutions to the conflicts to enhance sustainable forest resource management. The outcome of the study was that so many reasons accounted for the dissatisfaction among stakeholders and topmost among all was lack of trust among stakeholders. In conclusion, conflict among stakeholders was found to be common in the study area and it resulted in the unsustainable exploitation of forest resources. Sustainable forest resource management has therefore been thrown out of gear by these conflicts. It was recommended, among other things, that the government should develop the capacities of the stakeholders by strengthening and sustaining the participatory processes in forest programmes planning, solve the rural poverty problem, review the revenue sharing formula to ensure equity and include conflict resolution principles in forest resource management planning programmes.