Chapter one
Introduction
Non-timber forest products are crucial to the sustenance of rural livelihoods across all regions in Sub-Saharan Africa (CIFOR, 2005).They are major source of food and income for most rural people especially women in Africa (FAO, 2013).Women exploit wood, nuts, fruits, fibre and other resources to help sustain their families (Timbko et al., 2010). However, sustainable conservation of these resources has over the years witnessed if any, little efforts towards non-timber forest resources especially those found in the savanna zone.
In Ghana, though, the forest and wildlife policy makes provision for sustainable conservation of tree resources in the forest and savanna zones of the country, previous and current conservation programs appears to be concentrated in the forest zones neglecting tree resources especially shea trees found in the savanna zone (SheaNetworkghana, 2014). Typical examples of such conservation programs over the past decades include; Taugya System, Modified Taugya System, Voluntary Partnership Agreement and REDD (Ansong et al., 2014).
A typical important tree that contributes significantly to the economy of Ghana, yet is often neglected among others in the savanna zones is the shea tree (SheaNetworkghana, 2014).. This tree is a major source of livelihood to most rural women and children (Carette et al., 2009). The neglect has made the tree vulnerable to a state of continuous decline due to challenges such as; ageing, bushfires, charcoal burning, construction, and agricultural activities (Bup et al., 2014)
In 2012, the Government of Ghana launched SADA to oversee the greening of the north, but the authority has still not been able to execute a pragmatic plan of conserving these tree towards achieving its objective of greening the north.
Several attempts have also been undertaken by non-governmental organizations and individuals to conserve and plant shea trees with the overall objective of halting shea tree decline in the savanna zones but have still not yet recorded the needed results. Notwithstanding, it is recognized that, sustainable conservation of tree resources depends on the support and collaboration of local communities (Ansong et al., 2014). This support depends largely on the values or utility they derived from the resources. These values can be measured using several valuation techniques such as stated and revealed preference methods depending on whether the good in question can be traded in the market or not.
For comprehensive measurement of non-market and market goods Carson et al (2001) recommends the use of contingent valuation method (CVM). According to Carson, CVM is the most widely used and accepted survey technique for eliciting people’s valuation of non-market goods and services. It is a method that brings out individuals willingness to pay (WTP) for an environmental benefit (e.g. to preserve the view of a beautiful landscape, improve air quality), or how much money the individual respondent would be willing to accept (WTA) for a change in environmental quality. It employs field interviews or questionnaire surveys to induce respondents to make a hypothetical market decision regarding the non-market goods such as forest (Carson et al., 2001).
Despite some criticism about the hypothetical nature of eliciting valuation for non-market goods and service, Carson indicates that, CVM is widely used among academics and other research and development practitioners. Various elicitation methods such as direct open-ended question, bidding games, referendum, payment card, contingent ranking and review and repeat procedures are usually employed. This method has been applied in the valuation of various environmental services in estimating individuals’ willingness to pay towards improvement of various ecosystems in other countries (Hadker et al., 1997; Angela et al., 2014).In Ghana, the method has been applied in the valuation of various natural resources. Notable studies include the study conducted by Ansong et al., (2014) to assess local communities willingness to pay for sustainable forest management in Subri forest reserve, assessment of visitors willingness to pay entrance fee to Kakum national park (Navrud and (Vondolia, 2005) and a study conducted by Acheampong and Marfo (2011) to estimate chainsaw operators’ perception of the availability of timber resources and the willingness of these operators to pay for timber harvesting rights. This method has also been used to investigate farmer’s willingness to pay for improved irrigation services as well agricultural improvement (Alhassan et al., 2014; Baidoo and Amoatey, 2012). Despite the importance of understanding the TEV of environmental goods in policy making, previous studies have not assessed total economic value of savanna tree resources especially shea trees. This current study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by estimating the monetary value that local people are willing to pay towards sustainable shea tree production and conservation to reduce shea tree decline. The study specifically seeks to assess the effects/influences of socio economic factors such as; age, gender, livelihood activity, marital status, income and educational level of respondents’ willingness to pay. The study also seeks to investigate institutional arrangements that can facilitate payment towards shea tree conservation
1. 2. BACKGROUND OF SHEA TREES
Shea tree formerly Butyrospernum paradoxa, now called Vitellaria paradoxa belongs to the family,Sapotacea (Masters, 2004). Historical evidence suggests that, shea cultivation started 4000 years in ancient Egypt. It was regarded as a high valued commodity tree in regional trade in 1352 by one Moroccan traveler, IBN Batuta and a European botanist; Mungo Park in 1799. There are two subspecies of the shea plant, Vitellaria paradoxa and Vitallaria nilotica (Ferris et al, 2001). The former does well in arid and semi-arid regions of West African countries whiles the later, Vitellaria nilotica is home to East African countries. The shea belt occurs around a band of 500-750 km wide stretching some 5000 km across 20 countries from Senegal in the west to Uganda and Ethiopia in the East (Ferris et al, 2001). The tree is absent from the forest, coastal areas and from highlands at altitudes above 1,600 m (Boffaet al., 1999; Boukoungou et al., 2002). It has also been estimated by Maranz and Wiesman (2003) that, productive shea trees amounts to about 500 million which represents 2.5 million tones of kennel per annum. The shea belt is grouped into three zones following their potentials for shea nut production per year. These zones include the; high production zone, average zone and low production zone (Bup, 2014).
Vitellaria, is a deciduous tree of medium size, with a pyramidal crown. Shea trees grow to 10-20 m in height, but on rare occasions, they have been recorded to grow up to 25 m (Nair et al., 2013). The cylindrical trunk has a circumference of between 0.5-2.5m, usually relative to the height of the tree and measures on average, 3-4 m before splitting into numerous branches with thick, fissured bark (Nair, 2013). It has a greenish/yellowish color and grows in groups of approximately 30-40 during the flowering season, which is between December and March (Moore, 2008). Its characteristics of thick, corky, and fissured barks enable it to withstand harsh environmental conditions such as bush fires, harmattan, wind, and drought (CRIG, 2002).
Globally, shea products are highly valued and demanded in huge quantities by various confectionary, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries for the manufacture of a variety of products (Ferris et al., 2001). For instance, the demand for shea butter in Europe, Japan, India, Canada and the United States has witnessed rising trend over the past few years (Carette et al., 2009).
In Ghana, it occurs in the wild over almost the entire Northern Ghana, covering some 77, 670 square kilometers with some sparse shea trees covered in parts of Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern, and Volta regions to the south of Ghana (CRIG, 2002).
The shea industry though, still in its infantry stage of development, contributes 30 million US dollar to the economy of Ghana (Bup et al., 2014). Aside economic benefits, various parts of the tree have been utilized for medicinal purposes, hand tools, cooking utensils, poles for house construction, and charcoal production (Bonkougou et al., 2002; Carette et al., 2009; Dogbevi, 2007; Ferris et al., 2001; Hatskevich et al., 2011; Masters, 2004;)
Despite the positive contribution of shea trees in improving livelihoods of people both locally and globally, sustainable production and conservation of shea trees to sustain the industry remains a challenge that stakeholders across the globe remained focused in finding solutions to boost its production and conservation.
This study therefore seeks to address these challenges by assessing farmers’ willingness to contribute towards an initiative to boost shea tree production and conservation as well as identifying institutional arrangements that would promote payment for sustainable production and conservation of shea trees.
1.3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Shea trees; the source of nuts that produce one of the world’s most sustainable and valuable vegetable fats, are declining in number and will get extinct if actions are not taken to protect the trees now and the future (Poudyal,2009). Studies have identified land tenure and security, bushfires, firewood/charcoal production, population growth, construction and parasites/pest as major challenges/constraints to shea tree conservation in the shea producing belts (CRIG, 2002: Ferris et al., 2001; Masters et al.,2004; Okullo et al., 2011)
However, previous literature has demonstrated extensive results on the ethno botany and economic botany of the shea tree (Boukoungo et al., 2002; Boffa et al., 1995). Moreover, a lot of initiatives and projects have also been carried out on shea resource diversity and domestication (Boukoungo et al., 2002; Boffa et al., 1995). Applied research on technical improvement of shea production and processing has attracted the attention of many scholars in the past few decades with little results to show on adoption of improve shea production methods(Lovett et al., 2004; Addaquah et al., 2004; Okiror et al., 2011; Bup et al., 2014,Poudyal, 2009).Scholars such as (Hatskvich et al., 2011, Scholz et al., 2009, Carette et al., 2009) have also examined the market development potentials and value-chain governance of shea trees.
However, missing in the literatures, is determining whether stakeholders in the industry would be willing to pay towards sustainable conservation and production of shea trees and what socioeconomic factors would influence their willingness to pay. Identifying local institutional arrangements that would facilitate payment for sustainable conservation and production in the shea industry have also not been addressed in the literature. Therefore, ascertaining stakeholders willingness to pay and identifying local institutional structures for a sustainable conservation and production of the shea is worth investigating.
1.4. OBJECTIVES
To assess respondents willingness to pay towards shea tree conservation and production.
To identify socioeconomic factors that influence respondent’s willingness to pay towards shea tree production/conservation.
To examine local institutional arrangements that would facilitate payment for sustainable shea conservation and production?
1.5. RESEARCH QUESTION
Are stakeholders willing to pay towards shea tree conservation and production
What socioeconomic factors will influence the willingness of people to pay towards shea conservation/production?
Are there local institutional arrangements that would facilitate payment towards sustainable shea tree conservation/production?
1.6. STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS
Socio-economic factors (age, sex, marital status, livelihood activities, educational status and income) influences respondents’ willingness to pay towards shea trees conservation/production.
Weak local institutional arrangements do not promote payment towards shea trees conservation/production.
1.7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study was carried out in three clusters (area councils) in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region of Ghana. The context/scope was limited to valuation techniques, local institutional arrangements and willingness to pay.
1.8. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Majority of stakeholders (farmers, shea pickers and butter producers) in the shea industry in the study area cannot read and write. This presented a challenged since interview guides and questionnaire were used for the data collection. Hence, translations were employed in such cases to capture their views to reflect the realities of their thoughts with regards to the solutions to shea conservation challenges.
The difficulty of attaching values to the non-market aspect of the shea tree poses a great challenge to the researcher. However, previous knowledge on the value of other trees with similar values minimizes some of the limitations that confronted the researcher.
It will require a lot of time and capital to capture the views of all stakeholders from all the shea producing districts in the region. As a result, one district from the region was selected and a sample size of 100 respondents selected to save time and capital. As a result, systematic random sampling technique was employed to select the individual respondents, which enabled the results produced to reflect the phenomenon in the district and the region at large