Determinants of forest law compliances among inhabitants of local communities surrounding tropical wildlife and forest reserve in Ghana

Abstract

Globally, there has been a continuous increase in forest degradation despite the existence of forest laws, treaties, and international conventions. This situation calls for the need to identify factors associated with individual forest law compliance behaviour. In this study, utilitarian value, legitimacy of forest laws, social norms as well demographic factors as determinants of compliance with forest laws have been examined. The study was conducted among 252 participants in communities within the statutory catchment of the Owabi reserve which has in it a forest reserve, Ramsar site and reservoir. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25, AMOS Graphics and Stata 14 were used to perform descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and fractional regression analysis with the data collected for the study. The study found below average level of compliance with forest law as shown by a forest law compliance index (FCI) of less than 0.5. The findings also show a positive effect of social norms (β = 0.091, p = 0.03) and education (β = 0.092, p = 0.02) on forest law compliance whereas being indigene (residential status) negatively affect forest law compliance (β = −0.101, p = 0.016) at 5%. The findings led to the conclusion that promoting compliance with forest laws requires enhancing and strengthening positive social norms regarding community interaction with forests as well as education and awareness creation. We, therefore, recommend public education and awareness creation on forest laws by relevant forest management agencies and the adoption of lateral, collaborative and co-management approaches in forest law enforcement to benefit from the positive effect of social norms and education on forest law compliance.