会议时间：2019年3月21-23日
会议地点：奥地利·格拉茨
演讲嘉宾：Eric Asante
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana

摘要：
Thevalues enshrined in the Ghanaian culture propagate the ideals of sustainabilityof the forest. Unfortunately, many of the indigenous cultural values on forestsustainability are gradually being eroded and the youth especially are losinggrips on the important lessons they offer. The main thrust of the study were toinvestigate the causes of the declination of cultural education and itsnegative impacts on forest sustainability in Ghana while suggesting proactiveways of reviving cultural education in lieu of enhancing sustainability of theforests in the local regions. The phenomenological study was conducted in theKwamang and Bodomase rural communities in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Transectwalks to the sacred natural sites, focus group discussions and in-depthpersonal interviews guided the garnering of the data for the study. 68respondents consisting of traditional authorities, elders, the youth, andconservationists in the Forestry Commission, who were selected based on thepurposive and stratified random sampling techniques were involved in the study.The findings from the study revealed that the blind adoption of Western cultureand the abrogation of the ideals in the indigenous Ghanaian culture among therural youth are the principal causes of forest degradation. Avenues such ascommunal meetings where cultural education in the form of folklores, proverbs, mythologyand totemic stories is offered were seen as having great potentials insensitizing society members on forest sustainability. The study recommends thatthe Forest Services Division, the Wildlife Division and ConservationInternational must liaise with traditional authorities and the elders in therural communities in organizing seminars and workshops on cultural educationfor the society members, especially the youth to aid in imbibing in them, theideals of sustainability of the forest.

Keywords: Forest Sustainability,Cultural Education, Biodiversity Conservation, Sacred Natural Sites,Traditional Institutions

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