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The economic crises of the mid 1980s and 1990s due to a fall in economic productivity inflicted serious negative consequences on Cameroon’s forest ecosystems and forest resources which became the target of intense exploitation for multiple purposes. A forest policy reform at the behest of the World Bank was intended to regulate forest exploitation in a sustainable way. More than a decade since the inception of this policy, this study, through a three-tier methodological approach of survey, content analysis and observation, seeks to assess policy impacts per se, as well as the role of environmental communication in mitigating non-sustainable forest exploitation in Anglophone Cameroon. The study also investigates a valid and reliable option for the sustainable management of forest resources, by comparing and contrasting the two operational forest management paradigms. The outcome of the investigation reveals that both policy and environmental communication have a more positive impact in the community forest area than in the state-managed forest area, implying that the former is a better forest management option than the latter. However, forest sustainability is still at stake in both areas, due, generally, to bad forest governance such as corruption, minimal public participation, lack of transparency and accountability, as well as the ubiquitous presence of poverty, unemployment and inadequate public access to socio-economic development indicators. To this end, the study proffers some robust recommendations that if implemented will greatly enhance the badly needed forest sustainability.
Conflicts emerging through large-scale mining projects among government, industry and affected population are common all over the world. Especially the indigenous communities and their strong human-nature relation are threatened by the land transformation due to mining operations. Open pit gold mining performed by transnational companies TNCs and supported by the Philippine government aligning decisions on economic standards and market orientated legislative period, have been imposing tremendous damage on the Philippine indigenous communities and the national environmental resources for many decades, from colonial times, dictatorship, and new democracy . This thesis displays and discusses the interwoven web of socially and environmentally degrading impacts introduced to the small village of Didipio in the north of the Philippines by a planned gold and copper mining project. After describing influencing sectors of industry and government for decision making in mining projects and introducing interests and purposes of all stakeholders, assessment of changes in water quality and quantity, which are associated with technical requirements of open pit gold mining, is used to specifically relate the initiation of a punctual impact, on a natural good, and its provoked tremendous environmental and furthermore social degradation. A central assertion of this thesis is the call for recognizing human-rights based participation of all affected stakeholders via emphasizing indigenous people’s rights, balancing market-centred development aggression and foreign control over national markets, as well as implementing sustainable environmental awareness management by industry and government. Further recommendations are related to the resignation of defining nature merely according to its function under the utilization concept, to TNCs’ application of postmodern understanding of reason based on flexibility and versatility, and to the promoting of indigenous self-determination and individual initiative.
Over the last decade or so, there has been an increasing need to acknowledge the role played by local resource users in environmental decision making and to incorporate their perceptions in the management of natural resources. This has led to the development of various methods of assessing environmental attitudes and of natural resource valuation. Most of these studies have been conducted in developed countries and have utilised economic methods of valuation. This study highlights the environmental attitudes and values of a very important group of stakeholders - women - and the significance of taking these into consideration in the management of local coastal natural resources. Using respondents from two Ghanaian coastal communities, Bortianor and Moree, the study also investigated poverty-coastal natural resource linkages and how this knowledge can be used to improve Natural Resource Management in Ghana. In proposing specific policy options for managing the coastal environment an examination of formal, informal institutional and legal framework was also done. Primary data was collected by means of focus group discussions, personal interviews and participant observations. A total of 304 women (151 from Bortianor and 153 from Moree) took part in the study. The results showed that the study communities had poor access to basic amenities such as potable water, schools, health facilities as well as basic sanitation services. Their livelihood patterns revolve around the availability of coastal natural resources such as fish and fuel wood. The attitudinal scale used to assess environmental attitudes achieved adequate internal consistency with Cronbach’s (1951) Alpha reliability coefficients of 0.729 in Bortianor and 0.735 in Moree. The environmental attitudes of respondents were overwhelmingly positive; this however did not match the state of affairs in the area. The study showed that positive attitudes do not always result in pro-environmental behaviour. In the study areas poverty, low educational levels and other social and cultural practices could also influence the ability of respondents to translate the generally positive environmental attitudes into positive environmental action. The section on environmental values assessed the environmental values of respondents through the relative importance they placed on the different benefits derived from coastal natural resources. It also prioritised environmental issues or concerns in the study areas from the perspectives of the respondents. Rather than use a simple ordinal ranking of all objects, the paired comparison approach was used. The study showed that in both areas respondents placed the greatest importance on the coastal natural resources as sources of wealth creation and food. When it came to environmental concerns, it was not surprising that issues of safe drinking water, available fish and good sanitation were most important to respondents. From the results it was argued that since coastal natural resources as sources of food and income ranked highest, developing activities and policies that add value to the fishery industry, generate income and improve the standard of living of respondents would be most effective. Improving their standard of living could shift their focus from more utilitarian values to that of more pro-natural resource values. After examining existing institutional capacities and respondents’ perceptions of who should manage local coastal natural resources, the study concludes by using the findings to make some practical policy recommendations.