Indigenous institutions: A resource for environmental impact assessment and planning in Ghana

The thesis traces the evolution, procedure and constraints to environmental assessment in Ghana. It also reviews development paradigms and planning theories pertaining to environmental decision-making and demonstrates the need for planners to respond to specific conditions in different parts of the world with appropriate planning theories and concepts. A contentious issue is the need to explore and incorporate relevant aspects of indigenous institutions and practices in environmental impact assessment and planning in developing countries.;Focusing on Ashanti Region of Ghana, the thesis discusses the nature and operation of indigenous institutions and in particular, their ecological knowledge, beliefs, practices, and social norms that are relevant to environmental assessment and planning processes in the country. These aspects of indigenous institutions not only have the potential to complement western scientific knowledge in a way that would improve environmental impact assessment studies and planning but also encourage local participation and bottom-up approaches to environmental and planning decisions.;The thesis highlights specific avenues for incorporating indigenous knowledge in environmental decision-making and planning. There is the need to establish assessment and cooperative management boards that would include representatives of indigenous institutions. In addition, the development of technical dictionaries and training manuals or modules based on indigenous ecological knowledge and practices could improve assessment and planning processes in Ghana.;Constraints to the integration of indigenous and western scientific knowledge systems are discussed. One of the key constraints is the rapid and continuing loss of indigenous knowledge, in part due to the spread of a global consumer culture and the effects of western education on younger generations. If indigenous knowledge is to be preserved and passed from generation to generation, it will have to be recognized by the institutions of power and influence. Planners and policy makers would have to learn that indigenous knowledge is not just a relic of the past but is something that is important now and will be worth having in the future. In this sense, the integration of indigenous knowledge in assessment and planning processes may become part of the solution. Other constraints include: (a) the difficulty in changing entrenched attitudes of bureaucrats and politicians; (b) powerful internal and external forces; (c) ignorance, illiteracy, and linguistic barriers; and (d) lack of systematic records and common measurements for indigenous knowledge systems.;Thus, the integration of indigenous and western scientific knowledge systems in environmental impact assessment and planning may require structural changes, as well as changes in the attitudes and perceptions of most planners, governments and policy makers in both developing and developed countries. Moving toward decentralized decision-making, efficient communication, the restoration of participatory democratic institutions and the guarantee of basic human rights would facilitate the incorporation of indigenous knowledge system in environmental assessment and planning.