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The success of biodiversity conservation in African countries depends to a large extend on the cooperation of local communities. This study compared factors that influence attitudes of local communities toward the conservation of the Tarangire National Park (Tarangire NP) in Tanzania and Mole National Park (Mole NP) in Ghana. The purpose was to find out if the predominantly agricultural-communities around the Mole NP in Ghana will differ in park-attitude than the predominantly pastoral-communities around the Tarangire NP in Tanzania. Household survey was used to assess attitudes and focus group discussions used to elicit further information from respondents to complement the survey data. The study surveyed 365 households in 7 villages: 3 villages adjacent to the Tarangire NP and 4 villages adjacent to the Mole NP. There was significant difference between the park-attitudes of residents in communities near the Mole NP and their counterparts in communities near the Tarangire NP. However, respondents in both countries showed slightly positive and negative attitudes toward the parks as ecological entities and as community development agents, respectively. Factors that had significant effects on attitudes include: "knowledge of park rules," "employment in park," "distance between village and park," "household size," "access to non-timber forest products," and "livelihood activity." The findings suggest that any efforts aimed at increasing local community support for any of the two national parks should critically consider livelihoods diversification, population control, and extensive conservation education in neighboring communities.

Understanding local communities' willingness to participate in environmental restoration activities can help assess the level of volunteerism that can be expected for restoration projects. This study ascertained local communities’ perception of the importance of non-market ecosystem services, the impact of illegal mining on ecosystem services, and their likeliness to participate in restoration of degraded lands resulting from illegal mining. Fifty respondents each were purposefully selected from three mining communities (Ntakam, Asawinso No.1 and Nkatieso) in a survey. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests results indicated there were no difference in views of respondents regarding the importance of forest for various non-market services. Illegal mining activities were identified as the cause of environmental problems such as water pollution, deforestation, poor soil fertility and limited access to land for agriculture productivity. Majority of respondents across the three communities indicated that forest is very important for non-market environmental services. Logistic regression results indicated that factors that affect likeliness to participate in restoration financing included income, embracing non-market ecosystem services as important, confidence in PES schemes and positive value motivation for restoration (altruistic, use and bequest values).

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The vulture as an important and specialized scavenger in human societies, helps clean the environment and prevents diseases. However, plummeting populations across the globe in the last three decades has led to the classification of some species as endangered and critically endangered. This study predicts the intention of residents to support conservation of the hooded vulture in communities near a mine site in the Eastern region of Ghana. Novelty of the current study lies in the use of a social psychology theory to prognosticate human attitude towards a potential vulture population increase. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as the study framework while data was collected through household survey. The questionnaire assessed attitudes of residents towards the vulture based on a wide range of issues, using a five-point Likert scale. The results indicate that respondents have strong attitudinal disposition towards non-persecution of vultures – a salient determinant of intention to support vulture conservation ( r = 0.66, N = 281, p < 0.01). Variables reflecting attitudes and subjective norm were significant predictors of intention to support vulture conservation but perceived behavioral control was not significant. Interventions aimed at conserving vultures in the study area may succeed if strategies highlight the importance of avian scavengers in human societies and target change in personal attitudes that favor nature conservation in general.