Empowerment through knowledge? A study of local spatialised knowledge production in Ghana, and its exchange and use for forest conservation and governance

The knowledge of indigenous and local people plays a crucial role in sustaining forest ecosystems, mitigating climate change, and preserving forest-dependent communities. This body of knowledge has gained recognition by scholars and policymakers from the global to the local levels in the quest to achieve sustainable forest management. The scholarly literature on the knowledge of indigenous and local people addresses: (i) the importance of local knowledge to forest and biodiversity conservation, (ii) the need to recognize the rights of indigenous and local people’s, and (iii) the articulation and implementation of principles such as participation and the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to enhance the ability of indigenous peoples to use their knowledge and to protect their rights. However, it scarcely examines how concepts such as knowledge brokering and participatory spatialised knowledge production can be combined to analyse the empowerment potential of local people in multilevel forest governance. This study is based on the argument that there is little research concerning how the production, exchange, and use of local people’s knowledge in specific settings can lead to empowerment. In this thesis, I have analysed and documented the opportunities for community empowerment through spatialised knowledge production, exchange, and use in multilevel forest governance.