Adapting Land Administration to the Institutional Framework of Customary Tenure:

Historical experience in many Sub-Saharan African countries demonstrates that an alternative approach to conventional land administration methods is required to appropriately secure tenure and administer land rights in customary areas. This book is about dealing with the dynamics of customary tenure and with land governance and institutional capacity issues necessary to implement land administration at the local level. Methods for implementing land administration systems at the local level have been presented in a three-phased tenure model. The author concludes that customary tenure institutions have their own mechanisms for adapting to societal change, and a desirable solution would therefore be to adapt land administration to the institutional framework of customary tenure. The information in this book will be essential for academic work in land administration in developing countries. It will prove a useful reference for policy makers and practitioners in the land administration field

Customary Tenure Institutions and Good Governance

Although customary tenure institutions come under considerable strain and their functions tend to be weakened by the existence of a statutory institutional framework, many people in peri-urban areas continue to rely on customary tenure arrangements for land delivery. These institutions maintain their traditional power and social responsibility to allocate the rights to use land, resolve conflicts and carry out overall management of customary land. Yet, little attention has been given to whether or not the activities of these indigenous institutions meet good governance objectives in land administration. This paper analyzes key governance issues within customary land delivery and presents a framework for assessing customary tenure institutions for peri-urban land governance. The framework which is constructed on five governance dimensions is built on an empirical study in three peri-urban customary areas in Ghana and literature from other areas. We conclude that while indicators of other qualities may be also important, measures of efficiency and effectiveness in land delivery processes, equity in distribution and allocation of land resources, accountability of stewardship, participation of community members in land management activities and decision-making, transparency and access to information are essential to any complete assessment of good governance in customary land delivery processes

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF LAND DISPUTES IN THE ASHANTI REGION

Context and Background: Land is an important resource for human survival as well as that of other living organisms. Despite its importance, there are many problems that come with its management. There are increasing controversies and disputes over the ownership, access, and use of land. This is due to the increase in land demand, owing to factors such as population growth, urbanization, and food security. Land disputes in the Ashanti Region have drastically escalated recently as a result of these factors. Many land parcels have been left underdeveloped as a result of these disputes.Goal and Objectives:This study investigates land dispute cases from 2016 to 2021 in the Ashanti Region using survey records of land dispute cases from the Ashanti Regional Lands Commission.Methodology:The study reviewed 203 land dispute case files from the Lands Commission to perform spatial analysis in identifying the hotspot zones of land disputes in the area of study. Ripley’s K-function was used to test the null hypothesis of complete spatial randomisation and Moran’s I was used to measure the spatial autocorrelation of the land dispute incidences. A kernel density map was used to show the intensity of recorded disputes in the hotspot zones.Results:It was evident from the study that most of the land dispute cases were recorded in and around the central part of the study area. A map depicting the spatial extent and hotspot zones of the land dispute cases was developed to provide contextual background for policy makers, and researchers. Based on the Moran Scatterplots, Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) cluster maps were used to identify hotspot zones in the study area. A total of 12 localities were identified as hotspot zones in the study area. The incidence of land disputes was mostly in the peri-urban areas with proximity to the Central Business District. Further research is recommended to probe into factors that influence a locality or town’s vulnerability to land

Comparative analysis of access to WASH facilities and risk of microbial infection to children in poor urban communities in Accra, Ghana

Water quality is often compromised during the transmission chain in poor urban communities due to exposure to faecal matter. Uncontained toilet facilities and indiscriminate faecal disposal results in contamination of water sources with consequent enteric infections especially among children. This study aimed to analyse the linkage between accessibility to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities in two urban poor communities; and to spatially predict the risk of infection to children under five years. We mapped building blocks, households, toilet facilities, drains and water sources using orthophotos generated from UAV images and Real-Time Kinematic GPS surveys in two poor urban settlements- Madina Zongo and Gbegbeyise- in Accra. We enumerated 1, 680 households in the two study sites taking key indicators such as number of children under 5 years and duration of water storage. Results from the study show that most sanitation facilities were shared by multiple households. Water points and toilet facilities had uniform geographical coverage in Madina Zongo compared to Gbebseyise. In Madina Zongo, water and toilet facilities are mostly private, shared by users from the house where the facilities are located. In Gbegbeyise, most of the facilities are public use, open to several community members. The flash points in the drains mapped indicates several potential sources of contamination. Further, larger proportion of households in the two communities rely on water sources from storage tanks due to the infrequent water flow (more than 61.8% in Madina above the median water storage days for both rainy and dry seasons and more than 56.1% in Gbegbeyise above the average days of water storage for both rainy and dry seasons). A significant number of houses in Madina Zongo, use unprotected well as alternative source of water to the pipe water. Baseline water quality monitoring revealed that water from treatment point were devoid of total coliform and faecal coliform indicating safe drinking water source. However, several water samples collected at point of use showed presence of faecal matter. Mapping the distribution of infection risk adjusted for WASH allowed the identification of communities where interventions to improve WASH will yield the greatest health benefits

Mining and Its Implications on Food Security in Amansie West and South Districts, Ghana.

Context and background:In mining communities in the developing world, agricultural livelihoods are gradually being lost in terms of labour and farmlands. The operations of the miners coincide with other land use activities and cause conflicts between people who also have an interest in the land. Goal and Objectives:This research aims to assess land use changes caused by surface mining in Amansie West and South Districts and the effects it has on food security.Methodology:The integration of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were used to create a land use land cover classification scheme to analyse the trend, rate and extent of land use land cover changes. A modified random sampling technique was employed for data collection. Statistical analysis revealed that there has been a decrease in vegetation lands and forest reserves contrary to the mass increase in mining areas and a considerable increase in settlement/bare lands.Results:A statistical analysis revealed that there has been a decrease in vegetation lands by 11.67% and forest reserves also reduced by 5.95% from 2007 to 2020. Contrary to that, mining areas and settlement/bare land increased by 12.12% and 5.51% respectively. The research revealed that the people living in the mining communities encounter several difficulties such as water pollution and land degradation caused by the mining activities. Although productivity has not necessarily been affected, there are still concerns about food security in terms of utility and accessibility

Monitoring the Extent of Reclamation of Small Scale Mining Areas Using Artificial Neural Networks

Small scale mining is mainly widespread in developing and underdeveloped countries. Although it is a source of livelihood for several people, it causes environmental degradation. Reclamation is needed to restore mined areas to an acceptable condition. This study uses ANN to monitor reclamation activities in small scale mining area. Landsat satellite images of study area (2007, 2011 and 2016), ground truth data and ESRI shapefile of the study area were used for the analyses. Two ANN classification methods, Unsupervised Self – Organized Mapping (SOM) and Supervised Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), were used for the classification of the satellite images. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) change maps were generated in order to help confirm where actual change had occurred and to what extent it had occurred. The results show disturbance and revegetation in the study area between 2007 and 2016. The Barelands/mined areas class increased by 60.4% and a decrease in the vegetation class by 18.7% from 2007 to 2011. There was revegetation from 2011 to 2016 with the Barelands/Mined Area decreasing by 51.7% and the vegetation increasing by 3.9%. The study shows an increase in the settlement class by 87.3%. The research concludes that the application of ANN be strongly encouraged for image classification and mine reclamation monitoring in the country due to the size and quality of training data, network architecture, and training parameters as well as the ability to improve the accuracy and fine tune information obtained from individual classes as compared to other classification methods

Land use and land cover changes implications on biodiversity in the Owabi catchment of Atwima Nwabiagya North District, Ghana

This paper examined land use and land cover (LULC) change and implications to biodiversity in the Owabi catchment of Atwima Nwabiagya North District in Ghana from 1991 to 2021 using remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS), with participatory methods such as interviews and questionnaires with a sample size of 200 participants. The use of supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm in QGIS was employed to generate LULC maps of 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021. Molusce Plugin in QGIS was applied to predict probabilities of LULC changes in 10 years (2021–2031). The results showed that high-density forest has disappeared from 1991 to 2021 while built-up has increased and remained the most dominant LULC from 2011 to 2021. There is a continual decline in the number of plant and animal species in and around the Owabi catchment. This can be attributed to the decline of high-density forests and increased built-up in the study area through human actions. The study identified the influence of human activities as the key forces of LULC change to biodiversity loss. This problem stemmed from the taste for housing and trading activities in the Kumasi Metropolitan Area which has resulted in an increasing demand for settlement because of its closeness to Kumasi and its environs. The study recommends that stringent preventive measures should be developed and enforced by various stakeholders including the Forestry Commission, Ghana Water Company Limited, Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the District/Municipal Assemblies to safeguard the forest from human activities. This recommendation will help these agencies to keep abreast with changes in LULC in the various communities and factors such as changes during the planning of the communities