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Ghana : Indicators

2010 > Tenure and land use

Tenure and land use

Is most forest land under a clear ownership title, so that (theoretically) it is possible to point to any part of the country’s forested land and establish clear ownership of that area?

For all forest reserves, the ownership of the land is clarified in the reservation gazette. However, the ownership status is usually not covered with title (and documentation) but under customary and traditional norms. Most lands, on which there are forests, are stool lands under the custodianship of stool chiefs. The hierarchy of land ownership in Ghana complicates forest tenure and ownership and even though the question of forest tenure and ownership is not under intense debate currently, it is a subject recognized by government and all stakeholders as important to deal with as quickly as possible.
There is therefore no clear title ownership to forest land even though there is sufficient acceptance of customary ownership to reach agreement on which chiefs should receive royalties for forest operations for most forest areas.

It there an explicit current document which defines or describes land and forest tenure policy? If so, has it been used to inform the forest law and other norms (or has it been produced after the forest law)? Is it up-to-date or does it require revisions in the light of REDD, mining, tenure conflicts, or other threats and opportunities?  Read the report...

Is there a published policy on forest tenure?

In field research, the sections in the laws and policies about restriction on access to forest and wildlife reserves were indicated by officials as constituting published information on forest tenure. However, other stakeholders were clear that no published policy exists. Read more...
Where private forestland ownership is possible within the Constitution and legal framework, can the ownership of each area of forest be publically accessed?  Read the report...

Is there a register of private forestland owners? Is it accessible to the public?

There is no register of private forestland owners. Read more...
Does the law make a clear difference between owners and users of forests / forest products? If so, please explain it.  Read the report...

Is there a difference in law between ownership and use?

In general there is recognition in law (the 1992 Constitution) of the custodianship of land by traditional authorities (stool chiefs) who hold the land in trust for the people. Those who have usufruct rights to the land are also to a large extent identifiable by a combination of constitutional provisions, common law principles and customary law. However, there is a plethora of land laws in Ghana which tend to confuse the issues on land ownership and use. The Ghana Country Environmental Analysis (World Bank 2007), estimates that there are approximately 166 land laws in Ghana dealing with land issues.
It should be noted though that the concept of ownership of land (and forest land) in Ghana is quite complicated. Custodianship of land (which is vested in stool chiefs) is gradually being interpreted to mean private ownership and this is causing a lot of confusion in several communities. Read more...
Is it codified and understood who has rights to timber, minerals, non-timber forest products, wildlife, water, carbon etc? Are all these types of product available to all, or is there some form of differentiation (for example, private forest owners can issue the right to log, but only the state can issue the right to mine; or only the state can issue the right to log, but local communities who own the land can issue the right to collect non-timber forest products).  Read the report...

Is the ownership of different forest products clear?

There is a clear vestiture by law of timber, wildlife and mineral resources in the President. However, for other products there is less clarity on ownership. During the period of forest reservation, elaborate processes were developed to identify what the rights of communities and land owners were in relation to the forest reserves and the various access rights noted. However, these rights were poorly defined and with time what the right holders can or cannot have become even fussier. Nonetheless, discretionary power is exercised by the forest authorities at the local level in allocation of forest (especially non-timber) resources. Read more...
Are there clear, documented, understood and accessible steps for resolving tenure conflicts?  Read the report...

Is there a dispute-settlement process for tenure conflicts?

Sub Part II of LI 1649 provides a clear process of how conflicting interests in areas slated for timber rights allocation should be handled. But there are no documented processes for the resolution of conflicts for other products.
The service charter of the FC indicates a dispute settlement procedure but at the community level many people prefer to use traditional chieftaincy system for dispute settlement even on tenure issues. Read more...
It is possible, at national or sub-national level, to view or obtain maps indicating forest ownership and current permit-holders for different forest use? So, for example, it is possible to calculate what proportion of forest land has documented title, or what proportion is under logging concessions? Are such maps digitised?  Read the report...

Are ownership and forest land use maps available?

There are no ownership and forest land use maps. Several localized disputes exist in various communities between different claimants to a piece of land, most of who usually have site plans and maps of various kinds which are not necessarily codified. Newspaper publications on disputes arising from unclear tenure arrangements abound. Read more...
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