Environmental, economic, and sociocultural outcomes of Community Resource Management Area in Ghana: a systematic review

Abstract

Over the past four decades, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has gained global prominence as an alternative to exclusionary conservation. In Ghana, the Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) initiative represents the country’s principal CBNRM programme. Launched in the early 2000s, CREMA has expanded to over two million hectares across more than 600 communities, yet evidence of its performance remains fragmented across individual studies. This paper synthesizes the empirical literature to evaluate the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural outcomes of CREMAs in Ghana. We conducted a systematic review of 34 peer-reviewed articles, comprising 75 case studies across 24 CREMAs. Research attention is highly concentrated, with the Wechiau and Zukpiri CREMAs accounting for 38% of all documented cases. Overall, CREMAs exhibit substantial variability in outcomes. Environmental impacts range from increased conservation awareness and resource protection to continued deforestation and forest degradation. Economically, CREMAs generate income and employment opportunities, although benefits are often modest, unevenly distributed, and constrained by limited access to conservation financing. Socio-culturally, CREMAs can reinforce cultural norms, strengthen community cohesion, and enhance local management capacity, while also contributing to conflict, mistrust, and the erosion of traditional cultural practices in some contexts. We conclude that CREMAs remain highly relevant due to their geographic scope, strategic locations outside formal protected areas, integration with rural development, and growing policy significance, but their effectiveness is largely context-dependent. CREMAs should be considered as a complementary conservation approach alongside multiple-use protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. This review highlights key implications for future research, policy, and practice.