Browsing by Author "Ankoma, Mensah George"

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    Assessment of the current state of botanic gardens in Ghana and how they can be improved. case study – KNUST and LEGON Botanic Gardens
    (2015-03-24) Ankoma, Mensah George
    This study emphasized the current states of botanic gardens in Ghana and how they could be improved using the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Ghana’s Botanic Gardens as study areas. The study aimed at coming out with proposals which will help improve the general outlook of these two university botanic gardens and make them excellent scientific facilities in Ghana. Structured questionnaires were administered within a period of two weeks to about 120 respondents of whom 40 each were workers, students and visitors to these two botanic gardens. Some of the parameters considered in the design included bio-data of respondents, management practices, staff strength, educational and research programs, some cultural activities and students’ perception of the botanic gardens. Analysis of data by SPSS (Version 16) showed that majority of workers in both gardens were males and their ages ranged between 41-50 years. Urban residents visit botanic gardens at a much higher rate than people living in other parts of the country. Considering the gender distribution of visitors to both botanic gardens, females visit botanic gardens in Ghana than males and the main reasons why people visited the botanic gardens were because of their medicinal and floristic compositions. On the state of the gardens, most of the students thought the standards of the botanic gardens are falling and can easily lead to deterioration and into being an ordinary pleasure park. The study also showed that the several problems identified with these botanic gardens occurred due to negligence and ignorance on the part of the Government and stakeholders. In conclusion, it is proposed that, the only way forward to maintain, expand and to make the botanic gardens survive in Ghana, and stand the test of academic and research times for today and the future is to re-engineer it into an income generation venture since that is done globally in most botanic gardens.