Managing the Environmental Crisis in Ghana The Role of African Traditional Religion and Culture with Special Reference to the Berekum Traditional Area

Due to the strong inroads that Western scientism and Western Christianity have made in Africa as a result of colonialism, post-colonial African governments have tended to rely solely on Western scientific conservation epistemologies and models to the neglect of those of the Indigenous African peoples in addressing their environmental problems. However, there is enough evidence that neither modern (scientific) nor indigenous epistemologies and modes of addressing current ecological problems are adequate in accomplishing the task required. Thus, the synergy of the two epistemologies and modes of addressing environmental problems becomes imperative. This book provides a comprehensive insight into how Indigenous African religion and culture assist people in adopting a friendly attitude towards the environment. It also examines in detail how indigenous/traditional ecological knowledge is generated and transmitted among an indigenous people. This book, thus, provides a valuable guide for policy-makers, environmentalists, land resource managers, ecologists, scholars and students of conservation sciences, and all other stakeholders in environmental management in their attempt to find ways of blending both the Western scientific and Indigenous ways of tackling contemporary environmental problems in a holistic way.