In Ghana, Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) have been identified as a useful mechanism to foster community participation in forest conservation and management efforts, particularly under REDD+. The CREMA structure involves the devolution of power and authority to communities in off-reserve areas. So far however, established CREMAs face significant challenges in maintaining functionality and enforcing agreed bylaws.

To identify governance gaps, conflicts and issues that need resolution and to ensure effectiveness and sustainability of CREMAs, IUCN Ghana is undertaking a survey of the CREMA landscape, including socio-demographic, land and tree registration data in CREMA Areas. This will serve as a baseline for impact analysis and the planning of future interventions.

With more than 1500 households interviewed, Altus Impact assisted the IUCN-Ghana team in establishing a digitalised, user-friendly, data-entry protocol and made a basic comparative analysis the core data from this survey.

The computer assisted questionnaire tool was fundamental in making the data-entry process and data management effective. Altus Impact also made a simple baseline assessment of the socio-demographic and economic characteristics of CREMA and non-CREMA households. For more info, see: Westerberg, V., Hill, C., (2016) Socio-Demographic, Economic and Attitudinal Analysis of the Achichire Sureso-Pebaseman Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) in Ghana