SDM Project: Restoration of Community Sacred Forest to Enhance Socio Ecological Landscape in the Effutu Traditional Area, Ghana

09.02.2016

SUBMITTED ORGANISATION

A Rocha Ghana. Ghan

PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

Collaborative Partner: Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, Winneba

DATE OF SUBMISSION

09/02/2016

REGION

Africa

COUNTRY

Ghana

FOCAL POINT

Jacqueline Kumadoh (scientific officer)

SDM website

More information is available here

Abstract

The Effutu traditional area has an age-old custom of two groups of traditional warriors catching a live bushbuck with their bare hands from a communal sacred hunting ground for their annual Aboakyir (“deer” hunting) festival. The festival is not only an embodiment of the culture and identity of the people, but also serves as a source of community cohesion. In the last three years, however, neither of the two groups have captured a live animal for the annual festival, indicating that the bushbuck population has plummeted and could soon become locally extinct. This has become a matter of great concern for the community, as the extinction of bushbuck signifies the dying-off of an age-old festival that unites the Effutu people. This project therefore sought to address direct and indirect threats to the Effutu sacred hunting ground.

Warrior group returning to the community with a live bushbuck after the hunting expedition
Replanting in the degraded hunting grounds