This paper reviews the state of the environment in Ghana and explores the potential for the use of institutional, legal and economic instruments in environmental management in the specific context of this developing country. The environmental situation in Ghana is characterised by desertification, land degradation, deforestation, soil erosion, desertification and inadequate water supply in the Northern regions of the country. The population as a whole is growing at a rate of 3% per annum, with even greater urban growth rates, due to rural out-migration. Large parts of the coastal zone in the south are rapidly developing to become one large suburbanised area. Water quality is particularly threatened in the urban and industrialised areas, which are mainly... |