Zeitschrift für Biodiversitätsmanagement und Forstwirtschaft

Investigation of the Cultural and Artistic Elements in the Biodiversity Policies and Strategies in Ghana

Dickson Adom, Eric Appau Asante, Nana Ama Arthur Pokuaa and Kwadwo Boadu

Cultural and Artistic elements have a record of accomplishment of conserving biological diversities in Ghana. Unfortunately, the biodiversity policies in Ghana have only their sketchy representations resulting in the conservationists’ failure to utilize them in biodiversity conservation management. A qualitative study with Document Analysis and Phenomenology as research methods were used to investigate into the incorporation of cultural and artistic elements in some of the biodiversity policies and strategies in Ghana. Purposive and stratified random sampling procedures were used in selecting the 98 informants for the study. Interpretive Policy Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were used for analysing the accrued data from the study. The study revealed that there is dearth in the cultural and artistic elements in the investigated biodiversity policies and strategies due to the scepticism that conservationists have of the conservation ethos latent in them. The study concludes that the National Biodiversity Committee of Ghana must collaborate with researchers in traditional ecological knowledge to solicit for their expert views on how to effectively incorporate cultural and artistic elements into biodiversity conservation management in Ghana. This would aid in promoting a synergistic approach toward the combat of biodiversity depletion.