i Parkia biglobosa - School of Forest Resources & Environmental ...

tendamba are rapidly being replaced, superseded by the power of chiefs (Kasanga &
Kotey 2001).
Lands are usually inherited through the father in Ghana. An exception is the
Akan ethnic group who practice matrilineal inheritance. In many parts of southern
Ghana, timber rights, mining rights, farmlands, housing tracts and related land markets
are flourishing. However, in less developed northern Ghana, land sales are informal or
non-existent and the customary land tenure system prevails. Farmland is usually divided
between male family members within each clan. Women are encouraged to help the men
farm the land. A woman is only given farmland when no male member of the group
wants to use it, usually land with the poorest fertility. Outside the clan, land is often
given as gifts, or the rights are loaned until the family needs the land back. (Bakang and
Garforth 1998). A case study by Kranjac-Berisavljevic et al. (1999) of the village of
Dunglaagberuk in East Mamprusi district found that the various means of land
acquisition were inheritance, purchase, hire, loan, inheritance and hire (Table 2).
Table 2 - Means of Acquiring Land (by Kranjac-Berisavljevic et al. 1999)
Land Acquisition Frequency Percentage
Inheritance 174 82.9
Purchase 6 2.8
Hire 10 4.8
Loan 4 1.9
Inheritance + hire 16 7.6
TOTAL 210 100
The community shares access to resources such as water, grazing land, and bush
game. However, a landholder determines and limits the access to resources such as fruit
trees and fuelwood. In the case of economic trees such as Parkia biglobosa, the
32