Empirical results are elaborated below to support answering the research question. Further explanation was gathered from the interview results particularly linking indigenous planning systems to conservation hence degrowth. Here, a general interpretation of the semi structured interview was included to better understand the relationship between indigenous people, their environment and degrowth (Conservation). Moreover, the comparison between data and analysis was elaborated on in the last section of this work.
Belief in sasa
Unlike Christianity, which teaches that man is to govern and subdue the world, the 15 traditional leaders in the three study areas saw the natural environment as more than just a resource to be exploited for profit; they saw it as self-sufficient and deserving existence in and of itself. According to the respondents, indigenous Ghanaians believe in a plethora of spirits that reside everywhere in the environment, which the Akan refer to as sasa, and that these spirits possess great powers that can be employed to benefit or harm humans. The spiritual realm is also manifested in the rocks, animals, and plants, according to respondents. This means that wild animals and plants are revered and feared at the same time. It is clear that religion is not just an important component of the lives of Ghana's traditional societies, but that nature is also an important part of this religion.
Objectives reported to be sasa-infested
The respondents believe that sasa is present in many plants, shrubs, and animals, as stated in the opening section of this work, and they are cautious in their interactions with these things. Local notions and interpretations of nature are intricately linked with the cultural, economic, and religious lives of Ghana's ethnic groupings and tribes.
Rivers, trees, and animals are revered as sources of power by the locals, who believe they can indeed be gods or even have the potential to become gods. Rivers are revered as great gods, and river-gods are regarded as the most essential of all the mediating gods connecting man and the Sky God.
Trees as sasa-infested
The plant Odum (Chlorophora excelsa) is said to have a spirit. The odum is revered as a god, according to the respondents. They went on to say that the Odum can transform into a human being at night and visit a village king, informing him of all illicit actions in the society. Some trees are also valued for providing spiritual protection to individuals or families. The Alstonia boonei was once extensively utilized as an altar to God in practically every Ashanti compound, from whom they sought spiritual protection.
Water bodies as sasa-infested
In Ghana, there is the idea that the bulk of water bodies are deities. Rivers are said to take on the role of gods, reigning over the state's different duties. This is a popular practice among the Akans (Eguafo and Bekwai), who safeguard and worship them at many locations along their routes. This custom has been employed to conserve the headwaters of various river bodies, particularly those that provide drinkable water to a community or a group of villages. The lake Bosumtwe and the Tano River are likewise cherished and protected as sources of life and fertility; childless women bathe in these waters in the hopes of becoming pregnant.
Land as sasa-infested
The study's findings also revealed that most Ghanaian tribes see land as sacred and cherish it as the source of life. Land is regarded to belong to the living, the dead, and the unborn generations among the Akans. In actuality, the living is thought to be just caretakers of the land on behalf of the two other parties, and people who mismanage or misappropriate land are thought to be punished by the ancestors, who are thought to be deeply interested in topics relating to land.
In Ghana, indigenous knowledge holds that the earth is a woman and a deity known as Asase Yaa. Yaa is an Akan name for a female who was born on a Thursday. Traditional agricultural practices in Akan were created with the belief in and respect for Asase Yaa, allowing her to continue to perform a motherly role while also enhancing biodiversity.
Forest Reserve/ Sacred Groves As Sasa-infested
Forests are said to be the home of spirits such as dwarfs by the majority of Ghana's tribes. In the Tallensi traditional area, sacred grooves are areas where sasa is thought to exist. Each sacred grove has a name and a story about how it came to be. Folklore has it that groves began because an ancestor died there, had good luck there, or was the first to establish on the grove site. The holy groves, which are presided over by the Ndaan, represent the community's spiritual hub. The Ndaan, who acts as a link between the physical and spiritual worlds, is chosen from the local community to perform rites for devotees' spiritual needs.
Vegetation is grouped into three basic types among the Akan (Asante Bekwai), who live mostly in the country's forest belt: forest, savanna, and transition between forest land and savannah. According to the answers, the forest is the most important culturally, economically, and ecologically. Forest trees, particularly large trees, are thought to possess spiritual powers that can be harnessed for a variety of purposes. The respondents nominated two key forest reserves in the Asante Bekwai traditional area: Asantemanso and Bosumtwe forest reserves. They said that indigenous knowledge, such as taboos, cosmological beliefs, and the totemic system, had contributed to the preservation of these forest areas.
The Oyoko clan, which has the Falcon as its symbol, is represented by the inhabitants of Asante Bekwai Traditional Area. As a result, it is not supposed to be slain alongside other similar birds in the same family. Adopting this animal as its symbol seeks to represent the magnificent traits of the Asantes such as focus, power, resolve to succeed, strength, and supremacy. This explains why there are so many birds in the Bekwai traditional area. Hunters should avoid killing these birds in particular.
Cultural Traditions
This research discovered prohibitive practices (environmental taboos and social taboos) and regulatory conventions in the study areas for resource conservation and environmental protection. The difference between prohibitive practices (taboos) and regulatory conventions is that breaking taboos results in divine punishment, whereas breaking regulatory conventions communicates a message of poor grove management. Using the classification of Colding and Folke (2001), the study identified three main prohibitive taboos: Method taboo, Habitat taboos and Temporal taboos that helped in the conservation of resources within the three traditional areas.
Practises That Are Prohibited
The spiritual connections linked with sacred sites, as well as the notion that they symbolize the houses of the gods, force people to revere and safeguard the natural environment, particularly at these sites, according to the 15 respondents. The indigenous Ghanaians believe that these spirits look for the natural environment, hence permission is requested before touching trees, plants, river bodies, or animals.
Method Taboos
Respondents described a number of other taboos restricting harvesting of resources and farming. Using toxic chemicals on fish in some rivers, for example, is prohibited because fish are typically seen as offspring of the river deity, defending the rivers from pollution. The Ashanti regard Lake Bosomtwi in the Asante Bekwai traditional territory as sacred, and fishing is only permitted using specified methods, like wooden boards.
Clearing and using sites next to water sources for cultivation and logging is also prohibited. There are taboos against clearing vegetation for agriculture all the way up to the banks of streams and rivers. Farmers were instructed to leave a 30-meter strip of land on both sides of the water sources that should not be touched, according to the reply. Women who used to frequent streams and rivers are forbidden to do so while using black marijuana and during their menstrual cycle. Women are considered dirty during this time, according to the responses, and may anger the river goddess, who is revered as holy and pure. Rivers and streams were also mentioned by the respondents as sources of water.
Habitat Taboos
These sacred natural locations are one of the most important techniques used by Ghana's indigenous people to promote environmental protection by limiting land conversion to agriculture and prohibiting natural resource gathering. Forests are perceived generally amongst most tribes in Ghana to be the abode of spirits such as dwarfs.
Temporal Taboos
The findings also found that there are taboos in place that limit residents from using resources at a specific moment or over a period of time. The Eguafo traditional territory, a coastal region in Ghana, has taboo days when no fishing is allowed. Several coastal towns consider Tuesday to be the sacred day of the sea god. This is supposed to have the effect of providing a day of rest for both fishermen and fishes, as well as, as indicated above for farming groups, likely helping communal solidarity if the rest day is observed. This period of relaxation corresponds to the time when fish lay their eggs. On Thursday, the Asante Bekwai traditional area's belief in mother earth (Asase Yaa) precluded farming. People believe that this will allow Asase Yaa to rest, safeguard the land, and provide them with more food.
According to the respondents, these taboos have religious origins, requiring people to closely follow particular laws in order to avoid the gods' wrath. They benefit biodiversity conservation directly by protecting or restricting the harvesting of certain living things, preserving quality of the water, and enabling natural resources to restock. Various shrines are also built by the community to protect woodland groves and water features. Shrine sites are built in their communities for individual spirits (particularly dead spirits) who reside in natural places and items such as rivers, forests, rocks, mountains, and the sea.
Regulatory Practises
While traditional societies participate in these acts for religious reasons, they also appear to place a high value on other cultural services provided by nature, such as aesthetic benefits. Respondents specifically stated that they adore the physical beauty of trees, blossoming flowers, the calmness and coolness of rivers, the serenity of forests and groves, as well as the creatures that dwell in them, and that they would go to great lengths to safeguard them. The extent to which some areas of the surrounding countryside have remained unaffected by development was widely mentioned as a key aspect of its worth. Although these aesthetic, recreational, and physiological benefits gained from the natural environment are not directly tied to religion, they can help to improve spirituality. Sacred natural locations are also regarded to protect people's spiritual bonds with their surroundings.
These cultural benefits including natural setting, place identity, cultural identity, wellness, pleasure, and aesthetic benefits may assist in preservation by giving societies an additional reason to safeguard the environment.
Effect Of Social Change
Despite the prevalence of significant socio-cultural practices aimed at safeguarding the natural environment, respondents noted that development pressures such as mining, road construction, and stone quarrying had had a negative influence on many cultural sites and nature reserves in Ghana in recent years. According to the beliefs of Ghana's indigenous people, all human activities at sacred areas should be limited.
Respondents report that many previously uncultivated or sacred sites are becoming increasingly threatened as a result of increased development pressures and a reduction in appreciation for traditional religious practices. For example, mining has taken place near waterways that have traditionally been regarded as sacred by indigenous peoples. Furthermore, respondents stated that the growing popularity of other religions, such as Christianity, has weakened the power of social taboos that once protected sacred locations.
Comparative Analysis
The study's findings demonstrated that although there are taboos protecting resources against overexploitation in terms of habitat, temporal and methods taboos in the study areas, these restrictions are specific to the traditional areas and depend on the kinds of resources that are available, the types of land cover that is present, and the belief systems that exist there. The three study regions were chosen from three zones with various land cover and features, as was previously discussed in the methodology. Because they are location-based techniques for conservation, the prohibitive practices or taboos in one traditional area cannot be upheld or successful in another.
The belief systems controlling them differ even in traditional areas where there exists identical vegetative cover. In the forest zone (Asante Bekwai traditional area), for example, the prohibitive practices are primarily geared towards the forest reserves, and in the coastal area (Eguafo traditional area), the prohibitive practices are geared toward the sea. In the Tallensi traditional area, however, the prohibitive practices are mainly oriented towards sacred groves. The similarities among the indigenous planning systems in the traditional areas is that they are geared towards conservation and they have a direct impact on conservation hence degrowth.