Managing logging compensation payment conflicts in Ghana: Understanding actor-empowerment and implications for policy intervention

Forest resources outside permanent forest reserves form a substantial part of the overall natural forest biodiversity resources in Ghana. However, timber exploitation in off-reserve areas has been problematic as loggers and farmers have often been involved in conflicts over payment of crop-damage compensation. The paper examines 81 cases of this conflict which were reconstructed chronologically to investigate patterns of actors’ use of power resources and strategies and their effectiveness. The study employed an actor-empowerment conceptualisation of power and used a two-actor game model for the reconstruction of the conflicts. While several strategies and resources were mobilised and employed by the actors, their effectiveness were context-bound. The paper makes a case for areas where actors’ conflict capabilities could be built, why mediated bargaining can be more effective for managing such local conflict constellations and the need to interlock actor interests for mutual interaction by institutionalising mediated bargaining.