The Gender of Trees: Gendered Local Knowledge Systems in a Forest Fringe Community in Rural Ghana

1. The Gender of Trees: Gendered Local Knowledge Systems in a Forest Fringe Community in Rural Ghana Christine E. Gibb Second World Agroforestry Congress August 2009

2. Tree

3. Research Question: • How do the knowledge, use and management of tree resources differ among members of a forest fringe community in rural Ghana? Objectives • To characterize and evaluate the species, uses and management strategies that constitute the tree resources component of local knowledge systems. • To determine how people learn this knowledge. • To identify factors that lead community members to differ in their knowledge, use and management strategies.

4. Local Knowledge • Product: • A community-based understanding of reality that relates to the entire system of concepts, beliefs and perceptions of community members • Processes: • To observe phenomena, solve problems, validate new information • To store, apply and transmit information

5. Gender Affects Resource Use and Management • Gender as a means for studying difference • Factors shaping the content and distribution of knowledge systems: • Labour responsibilities (gender division of labour) • Property rights • Decision-making processes • Men and women in the South typically differ in their • Power to conserve, to modify, to build and to restore ecosystems • Power to regulate the actions of others • Spatial scale of resource tenure

6. Gendered Knowledge Systems • Knowledge about different things • Different knowledge about the same things • Organize their knowledge in different ways • Receive and transmit their knowledge by different means

7. Research Context • Deforestation emerges from conflicting interests of agriculture, agroforestry, livelihood strategies of resource-poor and political and economic influences • Taungya system: government response to forest decline and need for financial capital Ayakomaso N Source: CIA 2007 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia07/ghana_sm_2007.gif)

9. Study design Reflects an interpretive view of reality Adopts a feminist standpoint of situated knowledge Incorporates participatory principles and tools Research strategy Exploratory case study Qualitative data Methodology

10. Semi-structured interviews Community workshops Participant observation Review of secondary data Participant photography Methods

11. Gender and economic status interact with other factors to shape tree management strategies

12. Tree Management Strategies • Two types: • Strategies for conservation or economic purposes • Strategies for mitigation or adaptation purposes • Strategies typically included one or more of: • Low cost & risk averse • Considerate of a species’ desirable and undesirable traits • Reliant on traditional beliefs or taboos • Focused on species relating to personal preferences • Limited to species related to livelihoods • Informed by local issues • Influenced by informal, non-formal and formal education • Concentrated in locations for which an individual has access to and/or control over trees and land • Community members attributed their application of less-than-ideal management strategies to their inability to mobilize resources

13. Key Findings • Tree-related knowledge was learned through social and experiential learning within the local ecosystem. Thus, place and personal experiences continued to play vital roles in shaping local knowledge systems. • Gender played an influential role in shaping diverse aspects of local knowledge systems. • Commitment to tree management was • Affected by a variety of factors • Balanced with other commitments • Limited to familiar species exhibiting desirable characteristics. • While there was a potential for formal education to supplement the tree component of local knowledge systems, it can never be a perfect substitute because of the importance of place.

14. Medasi Paa • Community members in Ayakomaso • My supervisor Helen Hambly and committee member Jim Shute • Research assistants Vida Antwi and Irene Darkuman • Staff and teachers at FFRT, Sunyani and KNUST • JICA and Forestry Department staff • Family, friends and Frank • CDE and CIDS colleagues and friends • SSHRC

15. Questions?