The ecological and social context of mammal hunting in the coastal savanna of Ghana

This article argues that insufficient attention has been paid in the recent literature to the social and environmental factors which regulate hunting in Ghanaian savannas, and to how this may influence the sustainability of their livelihoods. Despite the vital significance of this issue, the emphasis in the literature and media has been on the destructive impacts of hunting and the bushmeat trade on wildlife. Taking a case study from the coastal savanna of Ghana, a region commonly regarded as a degraded relict of former deciduous forest with a richer wildlife past, it investigates the hypothesis that structure/actor dualities, manifested by socio-cultural change, local environmental knowledge and livelihood activity options, are the primary regulators of hunting intensity and possible sustainability. Such an evaluation is effective if done from a structuration perspective. The integrated methodology incorporates social surveys, GIS based time series image analysis, ecological field methods and statistical analysis. The results provide evidence that the direct and indirect regulatory functions of the socioenvironmental context provide a core feature of the sustainability of hunting. It is concluded that local strategies of resource management may provide an effective complement to conservation policy.