In our world today, the control over and the use of a country’s natural resources (and the biological diversity of which they are a part) usually present a lot of challenges for both policy makers and implementing agencies and institutions. These challenges range from weak institutional capacities and technocratic hurdles to opposition from local communities for whom policies may be meant for. However, if such challenges are effectively mitigated, large prospects usually associated with the sustainable use and management of these natural resources may be realised. In this article, based on intensive interview of experts and critical review of official reports and policy documents, we identify a number of challenges associated the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Ghana and recommend ways of addressing these challenges.
The study finds that there is usually a wide knowledge and information gap on issues related to biodiversity in Ghana. Moreover, there is inadequate funding which also leads to the inability to retain relevant experts. In addition, there is the complex nature of implementing multilateral environmental agreements in Ghana and the lack of adequate publicity on the essence of the CBD. Key among the recommendations we make are effectively engaging civil society organisations on issues of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development; the enhancement of Alternative Livelihood Projects (EnALPs); stringent enforcement of punitive and preventive measures and; the implementation of finance-generating biodiversity services.
African borderlands are sites where the state, borderlanders, criminal groups, and other groups compete and cooperate to achieve diverse interests. They are also zones of competing perspectives on security. However, current border security policies and practices operate within a restrictive neorealist theoretical paradigm with the state as the referent object of security thereby ignoring other perspectives on security. The vulnerabilities of borderlanders and the role of the border as a source of livelihood demand new ways of thinking about African borders in order to incorporate these major stakeholders into the bordering process. Although the adoption of the African Union's integrated border management strategy holds the potential to reconcile the needs of borderlanders with the objectives of the state, it remains within the restrictive neorealist framework. This paper argues that an emancipatory security theory provides an appropriate framework to understand African borders and borderlands. This theory holds the key for enhancing the security of African borders by reconciling the needs of borderlanders with the objectives of state security, and thereby making people and communities the referent objects of security. However, the failure of the theory to engage with the concept of power limits its usefulness.
There has been a growing trend towards protectionism, particularly in the Global North in recent years. The rise of Trump, Brexit and tighter immigration control across Europe and America seem to run contrary to the conventional neoliberal globalism discourse of free flow of people, capital, goods and information across the globe. Using a qualitative approach and drawing on data from published works, this paper argues that these events are part of the Global North’s rebellion against neoliberal globalism. This process is not external to the process of neoliberal globalism but integral to it. Although the current rise of nationalism and protectionism does not represent an end of globalization, it represents the end of the discourse of globalization as a fit all economic and political solution to diverse nations. This demands that alternatives to the current thinking be considered. A new form of globalization must consider issues of income and economic inequality among nations and people. It must offer the chance to the nation state to reinvent itself as the welfare providing and protecting states.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.