Environmental Considerations of Alternative Livelihoods for Women in Cocoa and shea Communities in Ghana

Due to climatic, economic and social variables, women in cocoa and shea communities are gradually adopting alternative livelihood strategies, particularly off season, a period when there is light or no harvest at all. We explore the effect of such alternative livelihood sources on the physical environment using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 131 respondents, of whom 88.7% were women drawn from ten communities in three regions in five geographic districts in Ghana. Our results indicate that 18 alternative livelihood sources pursued by women were key in providing the needs of most households and their effect on the physical environment was negligible. The exceptions were vegetable cultivation, guinea fowl rearing, and dawadawa (locust bean) processing in some communities, which had appreciable negative effects largely due to poor management practices. We recommend the adoption of adequate waste disposal practices and the enforcement of policies and laws that prohibit the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals used in alternative livelihood activities to avoid degradation of the environment.