Urban nature, values and human wellbeing in Ghana

The project in Ghana aims to explore the plural pathways between exposure, engagement and interactions with urban nature and subjective wellbeing, and the plural values held for nature, within an understudied African city context.

The project includes mixed method approaches, including a quantitative survey in the two largest cities Accra and Kumasi, and participatory qualitative work within Kumasi, historically know as the ‘Garden City of West Africa’. 

Survey analysis examines how residing in areas with different landcover types, engaging with specific formal and/or informal spaces of urban nature, and individuals’ characteristics associate with various subjective wellbeing measures (including hedonic and eudaimonic responses), psychological connectedness to nature, and the values held of nature – drawing on the IPBES framework; intrinsic, instrumental and relational values. The project also places a larger emphasis on disvalues, and the negative experiences of nature such as fears of disease and human-wildlife conflict, which are often overlooked within Global North research.

Qualitative fieldwork incorporates participatory mapping exercises to identify hotspots of plural values and bundles of different value types within local and citywide spaces in Kumasi. Coinciding focus group discussions aim to nuance survey results by providing information on the underlying mechanisms, experiences and memories which shape individuals’ and communities’ value articulations. One-to-one photovoice interviews were also conducted across Kumasi, allowing access to residents’ everyday interactions with nature and the pathways in which spaces, including agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and aesthetic flowers, can contribute to physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual wellbeing.

Taken together, these methods provide a body of evidence to examine the challenges and opportunities available within urban Ghana for improving human wellbeing and restoring the natural environment. Both cities have experienced mass reductions in natural landcover in recent decades, with this work helping to improve understanding of the risks this poses to societal wellbeing, as well as the experiences and narratives that can stimulate greater support for nature recovery initiatives.