Sustainability outcomes of teak plantation development in Dormaa, Ghana

Teak (Tectona grandis) plantation development in Ghana is an integral component of the National Forest Plantation Development Programme, a state-supported programme to conserve forests and sustain timber production for economic development, through refurbishing degraded forests and establishing new ones. The plantation development offers opportunity for understanding the sustainability outcomes of forest plantation development in environmental, social, economic, and political terms. With a case study of the Dormaa region in Ghana, this paper discusses how the sustainability of forest plantation development can be better appraised when target communities are considered heterogeneously. There is high state responsibility to the attainment of environmental and timber revenue goals from the teak plantations. However, there are social and political difficulties that confront different farmers but these difficulties are not emphasized for redress in the management of the plantations. To this end, this paper contends that teak plantation development in Dormaa is only partially successful in terms of its sustainability. The paper calls for an inductive approach to plantation development in Ghana that recognises the heterogeneity of the community of people affected, and which addresses the different conditions and possible implications of forest management for equitable benefits from the forests for all categories of people.