Environmental values from plantation forests: a study of Ghana’s modified Taungya System in Dormaa Forest District
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Date
2017-01-19
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Abstract
Natural resources, such as forests are valuable assets because they yield flows of valuable
direct and indirect services to people. Notwithstanding, forest in Ghana have progressively
disappeared over the years. This could be attributed to the fact that forest management in
Ghana focuses mainly on timber which has direct market benefits. Largely, environmental
services (non-market values) of forests are not taken into account in forest management
planning. This may be as a result of the lack of knowledge, understanding and estimation of the
value of environmental services provided by forests. This study sought to bridge this
information gap by estimating the values of environmental services of MTS forest plantation
using choice modelling along with the identification of management options that impact the
provision of these values. Each step of the research was built on the perspectives of
respondents. From literature and reconnaissance surveys, environmental services (attributes) of
forest plantation were identified, validated and ranked in order of importance in focus group
discussions. The first four environmental services on top of the ranking were selected for the
study. Conjoint analysis was employed to estimate the value of these services. SPSS
orthogonal design was used to generate different combinations of attribute levels which were
presented as choice profiles to respondents. Respondents ranked these profiles from most to
least preferred. The payment vehicle selected for this study was direct payment to participating
farmers. The results show that water regulation was the most influential attribute in the ranking
of choice profiles from the study forest plantation. Increasing money values had no effect on
how these choice profiles were ranked. The result of the ordered logistic models shows that
those who are not married, respondents from Abonsrakrom community, those with no formal,
primary and middle school education placed higher value on choice profiles made up of higher
attribute levels. In all, farmers were willing to accept GH¢400/hectare/year as compensation
for improving environmental services. The choice experiment technique allowed respondents
to indicate the relative value they place on various environmental services from small holder
plantations. The findings on the value of forest plantation environmental services have
important implications for forest management. Careful management is required to ensure the
continuous provision and flow of forest plantation environmental services. Paramount amongst
identified management options was fire management strategies. To ensure effective
governance of the established forest plantations, institutional arrangements need to be
strengthened.
Description
A thesis submitted to The School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Philosophy Degree in Natural Resource and Environmental Governance, 2016
Keywords
choice experiment, governance, Environmental services, modified taungya system