3 research outputs found

    Unpacking the moderating role of age and gender in the belief–behaviour link: a study within the context of water resources pollution

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    In Ghana, water resources represent a symbol of cultural authority, spiritual strength and a major source of wealth and power. To preserve these resources, taboos and customary practices were instituted as precepts in precolonial Ghanaian societies to regulate access. However, recent studies claim that the proliferation of Western religions has significantly diminished the potency of these centuries-long belief systems, with a potential impact on the role of beliefs on behaviours. Applying conditional process modelling to survey data from four rural communities in Ghana, we explore whether some beliefs influence pro-environmental behaviours in relation to water resources pollution; and examine the potential factors that moderate this link. Results show that some belief factors predict pro-environmental behaviour. However, this link depends on gender and age. The present study thus advances our understanding of the complex ways in which beliefs interact with sociodemographic variables to influence the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours

    What matters most? Stakeholders’ perceptions of river water quality

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    The need to integrate stakeholders’ views into environmental policy is increasingly gaining attention because this offers the opportunity to design sustainable and synergistic environmental strategies. Understanding and integrating the views of resource users into policy design and implementation could help address the most important challenges, gain community support, enhance project ownership, and avoid policies being rejected by local people. As a result, research in environmental management has focussed on stakeholders’ perceptions of river water quality and how to integrate such views into policy. While existing studies offer insights into the different ways in which stakeholders evaluate river water quality and potential factors influencing judgements, they appear to be limited in a number of ways. First, most of these studies focus on developed countries and may have limited contextual relevance to the developing world. Moreover, past studies focus on segments of society such as farmers and mainly on wastewater for agriculture. These shortcomings may limit our understanding of the topic and our ability to design effective policies to address water quality problems. Drawing on survey data from the Wenchi municipality in Ghana, we examine public perceptions of what constitute important measures of river water quality as well as factors influencing such judgements. Results suggest that while variables such as taste, colour, smell and litter are important, the presence of faecal matter in and/or around the river was rated the most important measure of river water quality while depth of river was the least important. Results further suggest that education, age, number of years a person had lived in a community, depth of river and the presence of aquatic vegetation influence water quality judgements. The findings of this research provide insights into what policymakers and regulators need to consider when attempting to influence behaviours in relation to water resources. We note, however, that while public perceptions of river water quality could guide water management policies, scientific measurements of water quality must not be replaced with stakeholder perceptions. This is because aspects such as ecological integrity may not be important to segments of the public but are an important aspect of water management. This is reinforced in the present study as there seems to be a lack of concern among the participants regarding river depth – an important factor for habitat provision and pollution dilution
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