By Mathurin Zida and Eric R.C. Bayala
Since the beginning of 2024, the COLANDS team in Ghana has been conducting validation workshops on the theory of change (ToC) in the Western Wildlife Corridor (WWC). These have been conducted at the community level within six Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) to ensure greater inclusion of perspectives from stakeholders whose voices are not always heard. Data from those events is being processed. Similarly, data from an assessment of the multistakeholder engagement process initiated by COLANDS in the WWC is also being processed.
Meanwhile, colleagues from the University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana – a COLANDS partner – led the writing of two papers for academic journals with contributions from the COLANDS team. These papers are based on biodiversity assessments of land use and land cover change (LULCC) studies in the WWC. Their working titles are: Bird Species Assessment in Community Resource Management Areas in the Western Wildlife Corridor of Ghana and Spatial Analysis of Effects of Community Resource Management on Landscape Structure in the Western Wildlife Corridor, Ghana.
Capacity gaps that had previously been assessed by COLANDS in all six CREMAs in the WWC were the subject of a manuscript led by COLANDS team member Dr. Eric R.C. Bayala (working title: Assessing CREMAs capacities in governing the Western Wildlife Corridor landscape in northern Ghana). That analyzes CREMA governance structures in terms of capacities to play their institutional roles and to effectively participate in multistakeholder processes in the framework of landscape governance.
COLANDS research was also highlighted in an article, with writing led by Bayala and published in the journal Forest Policy and Economics: Towards a more inclusive community landscape governance: Drivers and assessment indicators in northern Ghana.
The COLANDS team celebrated when, at the University of Amsterdam in March 2024, Bayala defended his PhD titled Community engagement in landscape governance and prospects for operationalizing integrated landscape approaches (ILAs).
Focusing on landscape governance through CREMAs, the thesis analyzes the opportunities and challenges of implementing ILAs in the WWC. In this regard, it first focuses on stakeholders’ perceptions of landscape governance problems and potential solutions, identifying common concern entry points for ILAs implementation. It then analyzes land-use conflicts, especially conflicts between farmers and Fulani pastoralists, emphasising the potential of ILAs to resolve such deep-rooted land-use conflicts. Third, the thesis analyzes the inclusion of local stakeholders in the CREMA landscape governance, suggesting indicators for inclusive landscape governance. Lastly, it focuses on the negotiation of trade-offs within multistakeholder platforms, analysing factors that influence deliberations.
