The Sacred Natural Sites Initiative regularly features “Conservation Experiences” of custodians, protected area managers, scientists and others. This post features an experience of Ms. Alison Ormsby PhD who currently works as an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Eckerd College in Florida, USA. When Allison is not teaching she focuses her research on on people-park interactions in Madagascar and Florida as well as sacred forests in India, Sierra Leone and Ghana. In Ghana she has worked closely with the community members of Tafi Atome to better understand the pros and cons of the community based conservation program that the community got involved with in order to safe their sacred forest and make a living. Read more.
The village of Tafi Atome is located within the Hohoe District of the Volta Region of Ghana. Residents and is surrounded by a sacred grove of approximately 28 ha. The grove fits into the IUCN protected area Category IV, a habitat and/or species management area. The area is protected by a 2006 Hohoe District bylaw for its main value as habitat for sacred mona monkeys (Cercopithecus mona mona).
The village of Tafi Atome is located within the Hohoe District of the Volta Region of Ghana. Residents and is surrounded by a sacred grove of approximately 28 ha.
According to residents, approximately 200 years ago, the ancestors of the residents of the Tafi Atome area are said to have migrated from Assini in central Ghana to the Hohoe District. They brought with them an idol or fetish that was placed in the sacred forest in Tafi Atome, in order to keep it safe and cool. The forest was immediately considered sacred and therefore protected.
In the 1980s, a local Christian leader brought opposing views to traditional law, which led to the deterioration of spiritual connections with the fetish forest and erosion of traditional protection. Residents cut down economically viable trees, particularly around the sacred grove, until an environmental organization helped re-affirm protection of the grove in the 1990s. There is ongoing pressure from local residents to clear the forests for farmland and to cut trees. There is also tourism pressure to feed the mona monkeys.
Read more about how tourism promotion at Tafi Atome helped curb threats to their sacred forest.
