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

“Which do you prefer the real dawadawa or the soybean version?” and “Why do you
prefer one to the other?”. A response by one group member often could inspire another
to elaborate on the response. A limit or cautionary note to this method is the group setting
may inhibit the responses of certain individuals. For example, a small number of women
within a large group of men could feel intimidated and not answer or respond to
questions posed by the interviewer. The nursery workers and foremen attending these
workshops are members of their own communities but also have received training and
education about tree planting, agroforestry, and conservation. They have a high level of
self-confidence when speaking about trees. Their responses offered knowledgeable
information from different communities in northern Ghana. I sought to gather
information from sources outside my community and compare, contrast, and evaluate
those findings with the information gathered from Kandiga.
Key Informants
The key informants I selected were members of the community who were
trustworthy, competent, and reliable. I relied on these key informants principally for
information and to a lesser extent, as assistants in gathering information, as translators,
and liaisons. I also asked these key informants for their guidance when interpreting the
information I gathered. I could ask them if a statement was true or if the person I
interviewed was truthful. My key informants were members of my village family,
Kandiga CCFI nursery workers, teachers, headmasters, assembly persons, and my close
neighbors.
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