IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/forpol/v180y2025ics1389934125002072.html

Community resource management areas and household food security in northern Ghana: Insights from a socio-ecological systems perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Pienaah, Cornelius K.A.

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a pressing challenge in rural Ghana, particularly in the semi-arid northern regions where sociodemographic, socio-economic, and environmental factors heighten household risks. In response, Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) have been introduced as decentralized governance structures to promote sustainable natural resource management, biodiversity, and improve livelihoods. However, the extent to which CREMAs influence household food security remains underexplored. Grounded in the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework, this study has two main objectives: (1) to determine variations in food security between households located within CREMAs and those outside CREMAs (non-CREMA households), and (2) to analyze the socio-demographic and socio-economic factors that explain such variations. Cross-sectional data were collected from 517 smallholder farmer households across four community contexts, Wechiau, Dorimo, Zukpiri, and Chakali, in northern Ghana. Using ordered logistic regression analysis, the results show that households within CREMAs experience lower levels of severe food insecurity compared to non-CREMA households. Food security outcomes varied across zones, influenced by factors such as age, education, gender, household size, wealth, home gardening, livestock rearing, access to credit, and remittances, with context-specific effects. These findings underscore the vital role of CREMAs in enhancing household food security by promoting improved resource governance and sustainable practices. A dual approach is recommended to address food insecurity in northern Ghana. This entails scaling up CREMAs and reinforcing community resource management, while simultaneously strengthening governance, broadening financial and livelihood opportunities, and providing targeted support to vulnerable households.

Suggested Citation

  • Pienaah, Cornelius K.A., 2025. "Community resource management areas and household food security in northern Ghana: Insights from a socio-ecological systems perspective," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:180:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125002072
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103628
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934125002072
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103628?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Appiah-Twumasi & Maxwell Anamdare Asale, 2024. "Crop diversification and farm household food and nutrition security in Northern Ghana," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 157-185, January.
    2. Bayala, Eric Rega Christophe & Ros-Tonen, Mirjam & Yanou, Malaika Pauline & Djoudi, Houria & Reed, James & Sunderland, Terry, 2024. "Towards more inclusive community landscape governance: Drivers and assessment indicators in northern Ghana," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    3. Leach, Melissa & Mearns, Robin & Scoones, Ian, 1999. "Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 225-247, February.
    4. Moren Tibabo Stone & Gyan Nyaupane, 2014. "Rethinking community in community-based natural resource management," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 17-31, January.
    5. Kolog, J.D. & Asem, F. E. & Mensah-Bonsu, A., 2023. "The State Of Food Security And Its Determinants In Ghana: An Ordered Probit Analysis Of The Household Hunger Scale And Household Food Insecurity Access Scale," Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness 387594, University of Ghana.
    6. Mengina Gilli & Muriel Côte & Gretchen Walters, 2020. "Gatekeeping Access: Shea Land Formalization and the Distribution of Market-Based Conservation Benefits in Ghana’s CREMA," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-15, September.
    7. Nchanji, Eileen Bogweh & Chagomoka, Takemore & Bellwood-Howard, Imogen & Drescher, Axel & Schareika, Nikolaus & Schlesinger, Johannes, 2023. "Land tenure, food security, gender and urbanization in Northern Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    8. Mawutor, Samuel M. & Hajjar, Reem, 2024. "Empowerment and disempowerment in community-based natural resource management: Examining CREMA outcomes in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. Kumeh, Eric Mensah & Kyereh, Boateng & Birkenberg, Athena & Birner, Regina, 2021. "Customary power, farmer strategies and the dynamics of access to protected forestlands for farming: Implications for Ghana's forest bioeconomy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Dugasseh, Frank Akowuge & Aapengnuo, Clement & Zandersen, Marianne, 2021. "Land tenure regimes for women in Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) in Northern Ghana: Opportunities and threats," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    11. Kilian Nasung Atuoye & Roger Antabe & Yujiro Sano & Isaac Luginaah & Jason Bayne, 2019. "Household Income Diversification and Food Insecurity in the Upper West Region of Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 899-920, July.
    12. Bonye, Samuel Ziem & Yiridomoh, Gordon Yenglier & Nsiah, Vivian, 2023. "Multi-stakeholder actors in resource management in Ghana: Dynamics of community-state collaboration in resource use management of the Mole National Park, Larabanga," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ojha, Hemant R. & Ford, Rebecca & Keenan, Rodney J. & Race, Digby & Carias Vega, Dora & Baral, Himlal & Sapkota, Prativa, 2016. "Delocalizing Communities: Changing Forms of Community Engagement in Natural Resources Governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 274-290.
    2. Lenggenhager, Luregn & Ramutsindela, Maano, 2021. "Property killed a peace park dream: The entanglement of property, politics and conservation along the Gariep," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Pienaah, Cornelius K.A. & Adeetuk, Lina & Baruah, Bipasha & Luginaah, Isaac, 2025. "Harnessing women's traditional ecological knowledge through photovoice to address shea tree caterpillar (Cirina butyrospermi) infestation in semi-arid Ghana," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Sackey, Ransford & Brobbey, Lawrence Kwabena & Kumeh, Eric Mensah & Ameyaw, Joana Akua Serwaa, 2025. "Environmentality and the making of compliant subjects: Insights from collaborative forest management innovations in Southwestern Ghana," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    5. Abinash Bhattachan & Matthew D. Jurjonas & Priscilla R. Morris & Paul J. Taillie & Lindsey S. Smart & Ryan E. Emanuel & Erin L. Seekamp, 2019. "Linking residential saltwater intrusion risk perceptions to physical exposure of climate change impacts in rural coastal communities of North Carolina," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(3), pages 1277-1295, July.
    6. Kamaldeen Mohammed & Evans Batung & Moses Kansanga & Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong & Isaac Luginaah, 2021. "Livelihood diversification strategies and resilience to climate change in semi-arid northern Ghana," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Patrick Bottazzi & David Crespo & Harry Soria & Hy Dao & Marcelo Serrudo & Jean Paul Benavides & Stefan Schwarzer & Stephan Rist, 2014. "Carbon Sequestration in Community Forests: Trade-offs, Multiple Outcomes and Institutional Diversity in the Bolivian Amazon," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(1), pages 105-131, January.
    8. Lenyeletse V. Basupi & Claire H. Quinn & Andrew J. Dougill, 2017. "Pastoralism and Land Tenure Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Conflicting Policies and Priorities in Ngamiland, Botswana," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-17, December.
    9. Ruben, Ruerd & Pender, John, 2004. "Rural diversity and heterogeneity in less-favoured areas: the quest for policy targeting," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 303-320, August.
    10. Ko, Jeremy & Leung, Chun Kai, 2025. "Gender Inequality and ESG performance: A global analysis of governance, environmental, and social outcomes in 97 countries," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 4(4).
    11. Stephen Woroniecki, 2019. "Enabling Environments? Examining Social Co-Benefits of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Sri Lanka," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Sjöstedt, Martin & Sundström, Aksel & Jagers, Sverker C. & Ntuli, Herbert, 2022. "Governance through community policing: What makes citizens report poaching of wildlife to state officials?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    13. Garrett, R.D. & Grabs, J. & Cammelli, F. & Gollnow, F. & Levy, S.A., 2022. "Should payments for environmental services be used to implement zero-deforestation supply chain policies? The case of soy in the Brazilian Cerrado," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Salla Eilola & Lalisa Duguma & Niina Käyhkö & Peter A. Minang, 2021. "Coalitions for Landscape Resilience: Institutional Dynamics behind Community-Based Rangeland Management System in North-Western Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, October.
    15. Hailu, Reta & Tolossa, Degefa, 2020. "Multi-stakeholder platforms: Institutional options to achieve water security in the awash basin of Ethiopia," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    16. Shyamsundar, Priya & Ahlroth, Sofia & Kristjanson, Patricia & Onder, Stefanie, 2020. "Supporting pathways to prosperity in forest landscapes – A PRIME framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. Ulybina, Olga, 2014. "Russian forests: The path of reform," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 143-150.
    18. Stephen Prah & Bright Owusu Asante & John N. Ng’ombe, 2026. "Who Manages Better? Gendered Perspectives on Food Security and Subjective Wellbeing in Ghana," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 1-34, February.
    19. Karin Andrea Wigger & Dean A. Shepherd, 2020. "We’re All in the Same Boat: A Collective Model of Preserving and Accessing Nature-Based Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(3), pages 587-617, May.
    20. Bidhan Kanti Das, 2019. "Denial of Rights Continues: How Legislation for ‘Democratic Decentralisation’ of Forest Governance was Subverted in the Implementation Process of the Forest Rights Act in India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 957-983, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:180:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125002072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.