Assessing the driving forces of environmental degradation in Northern Ghana: Community truthing approach

Abstract

This article employs community truthing approach to interpret local peoples understanding and knowledge concerning the driving forces of environmental degradation in Northern Ghana. Through a wide range of participatory rural appraisal techniques, such as key informant interviews, focus group discussion and participants’ observation, selected people from the study community were given the chance to critically review, identify issues and add meanings in terms of the nature and causes of environmental degradation in their area of abode. Results revealed that the current state of the natural environment in the study area is as a result of complex interactions among several direct and indirect forces, the most important of which are small-scale legal and illegal mining and indiscriminate grazing which are driven indirectly by socio-economic and cultural forces such as poverty, high population growth, migration and loose tenure system. Key words: Community truthing, environmental degradation, driving forces, Northern Ghana.