Does Environmental Laws and Policies Work? A Review Of Ghana’s Case

Abstract

Enforcing environmental laws and policies has been one of the pressing agenda globally. Despite the mandate given to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Act 490, there are still numerous environmental issues unaddressed in Ghana. This paper is geared towards unravelling and identifying the recent contributions to the literature available about various environmental laws and policies in Ghana. An extensive literature survey was performed to identify substantial works published concerning environmental laws and policies. Numerous environmental laws and policies were identified, however, they were found to be fragmented and scattered in various documents. It is evident from the review of literature existing that there are still areas for advanced research on the topic of environmental laws and policies placing more emphasis on institution concerned with environmental issues at global level. The study recommended the need for capacity building for environmental personnel and data due to the numerous technological advancement.

Climate variability and extractivism exposures: Understanding household perspectives on livelihood resilience in rural Ghana

“…Bia and Tano are transboundary rivers which drain into the Gulf Guinea westward in Ivory Coast, while Ankobra and Pra rivers are inland and drains directly into the Gulf of Guinea southward of the country. Southwestern Ghana is known for its long-term mineral and forest resources extractive activities (G. Hilson, 2002), hence of high socio-economic relevance to national development, coupled inevitably with rapid environmental degradation (Junior & Matsui, 2018;A. E. Mensah et al, 2020).…”

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

“…As a legal order, Ghanaians are obligated to defend and protect the environment without any fear while upholding all other duties as enshrined in Chapter Six (6), Article 36 (9) of the 1992 Republic of Ghana Constitution. This legal mandate is relevant in all environmental spheres, and one particular way to do that is by enforcing environmental laws and policies (Mensah et al, 2020). Thus, the government, citizens, and stakeholders must protect and manage the environment to ensure sustainable environmental development.…”