INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Volume 2, No 2, 2011 © Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing Association Research article ISSN 0976 – 4402 Received on September 2011 Published on November 2011 429 An evaluation of forest conservation perceptions after a decade of community conservation in AfadjatoAgumatsa, Ghana Erasmus H. Owusu 1 , Edem K. Ekpe 2 1 Department of Animal Biology and Conservation Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana 2 Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA edemekpe@knights.ucf.edu ABSTRACT Perceptions of communities about natural resource conservation are important intermediate outcomes of conservation interventions. This is especially important in communitybased natural resource management regimes, where they need to be assessed before the ultimate outcome of conserved natural resources and biodiversity. The assessments of these perceptions are also very important for conservation management purposes. Selected communities in the AfadjatoAgumatsa area in Ghana, West Africa started community forest conservation in 1999 with technical support from a conservation organization as well as financial support from an international agency. At the beginning of the conservation action, forest conservation perceptions were assessed. In this study, we evaluated the changes in perceptions about forest conservation in three communities living in the AfadjatoAgumatsa area in Ghana, between 1999 and 2009. The method we used was a qualitative pretest posttest evaluation. We also assessed which socioeconomic factors predicted peoples’ perceptions about forest conservation. The results suggest that there has been an overall increase in support for forest conservation in the area expressed by the cultural, natural resource and economic benefits and values from the forests since 1999. This increase could be influenced by the cultural and economic benefits that the conservation program introduced. However, some respondents continue to hold reservations about restrictions to the exploitation of natural resources that the conservation program has imposed. This concern has to be continually managed. Keywords: Forests Conservation, Perceptions, Communities, Evaluation, Natural Resources, Ghana 1. Introduction Community conservation of natural resources and biodiversity currently enjoys an appreciable level of acceptance worldwide. Since this type of popular resource conservation strategy gained popular and official support, its practice has been very widespread in many parts of the world (LeaderWilliams et al 1996, Owusu 2010). Community conservation devolves resource management to local groups living near the resource. The practice ranges from low community participation levels whereby the local communities are only coopted to officially endorse decisions, to high levels of community participation whereby community stakeholders take the initiatives, make decisions, and take charge of resource management actions independent of external institutions (Wilcox 1994; Allen et al. 2002). In this study, we derive a definition from Agrawal and Gibson (1999) that a community is a small spatial unit of human settlements which has common interests and shared norms. The devolution of resource management to communities aims at getting their support for conservation.