Equitable Fire Management in Ghana

Equitable Fire Management in Ghana: co-developing an adaptable framework with local communities using social science and arts-based methods

by Adriana Ford, Rahina Sidiki Alare, Kate Schreckenberg (KCL/Leverhulme Wildfires), Godwin Evenyo Dzekoto (A Rocha Ghana) and Danny Anetang (MagzyART)

In recent years, the prevalence of wildfires has become a major concern for societies across the globe. Research shows that climate change is poised to increase the frequency of wildfire risk, particularly in areas where fuel remains abundant. While actions towards managing wildfires in West African savanna landscapes have focused on fire suppression policies and restoration projects, the extensive burning of landscapes highlights a discrepancy between fire policies and burning practices. This has resulted in biodiversity loss, land degradation, and detrimental impacts on local livelihoods.

One example of this is in Northern Ghana’s savannah landscapes, where Rahina Sidiki Alare has focused her PhD research on at King’s College London, supervised by Prof Kate Schreckenberg. Her research has aimed to understand the complexities of fire management in the region. This has shown that different ways of describing fire (e.g. wildfire, bushfire, traditional burning) and various sources of data about fires (e.g. remote sensing, local knowledge) can lead to misunderstandings between stakeholders which can unfairly penalise traditional burning practices (by farmers, herders, hunters) in the name of national aims to reduce carbon emissions.

Building on this research, the Leverhulme Centre of Wildfires, Environment and Society at King’s College London collaborated with A Rocha Ghana – a Ghanaian civil society organisation – on an ‘impact’ project to promote equitable and environmental sustainability in Northern Ghana savannah landscapes. The project, co-led by Adriana Ford, Godwin Evenyo Dzekoto, Rahina Sidiki Alare, Kate Schreckenberg and Danny Anetang, ran from September 2024 to June 2025, was funded by a KCL AHRC Impact Accelerator Award, with additional financial support from the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society. It aimed to integrate traditional fire knowledge with Western knowledge, fostering culturally sensitive and holistic approaches to wildfire management. Considering the urgent need to mitigate escalating wildfire risk amidst climate change and to do so within the context of sustainable development, equity, and poverty eradication (IPCC, 2022), this project’s intervention was timely.

The project involved a participatory workshop to explore new ways of understanding and governing fires, particularly by engaging with migrants and herders whose voices are often excluded from community-based fire management projects and formal policies. The workshop brought together diverse stakeholders from academia, government, NGOs, traditional authorities, private organisations, and local communities. It also brought together social sciences and arts-based approaches, and the the conversations and participatory drawing informed the creation of a mural artwork billboard, designed by Daniel Kweku Anetang and titled ‘Flames of Duality’, capturing both the risks and customary practices associated with fire use. The billboard was launched along with a policy brief, on 27th June 2025.

Impact Case study coming soon

Policy Brief

The project led the the development of a policy brief, which the aim of informing fire policy in Ghana. Download here: Equitable Fire Management in Ghana – Policy Brief 2025

Workshop Report

In the project, we organised a two-day participatory workshop in Damongo in Ghana’s Savannah Region, on 16th-17th October 2024, with the aim of promoting inclusive fire management in Northern Ghana. You can read the full workshop report here: Equitable Fire Governance in Ghana – AHRC, KCL, Leverhulme Wildfires, A Rocha Ghana – Workshop report 2024

Artist Statement – Flames of Duality

In “Flames of Duality,” I explore the complex and often contradictory nature of fire within our landscapes and lives, its capacity to both nurture and destroy. This painting weaves together six intertwined scenes, each illustrating the multifaceted roles fire plays in human and ecological narratives.

In the first scene, firefighters in urgent motion battle a fierce blaze threatening a home, sparked by an uncontrolled fire elsewhere. This raw moment captures the peril and chaos that fire can unleash when not carefully managed.

In the second scene, a woman burning rubbish while carrying her child is juxtaposed with an elderly woman cooking over a wood fire in the third scene, highlighting the gendered nature of fire use.

At the heart of the painting, I rendered abstractly in bold black strokes, a farmer who battles wildfires through controlled fire belts, embodying human resilience and ingenuity in protecting the land and the crops.

Inspired by tradition, in the fifth scene herdsmen use fire to warm and nurture their cattle, utilizing controlled fire to maintain livestock health and comfort, a testament to fire’s role in tradition and survival.

The final scene offers a stark, haunting image of wild animals stranded on scorched earth, trees aflame, and cracked soil, an urgent reminder of the devastating consequences of uncontrolled wildfires on ecosystems.

In my artwork titled “Flames of Duality,” the vibrant oil orange colour takes centre stage, vividly portraying the essence of fire. This dominating hue captures both the destructive and transformative nature of flames, embodying the dual forces of chaos and renewal. The intense orange draws the viewer’s eye, evoking warmth and energy while symbolizing the powerful, ever-changing interplay between opposing elements within the piece.

Through this layered composition, I aim to provoke dialogue about our stewardship of fire, its potential to nurture and destroy and the delicate balance we must strive to maintain. Fire is not merely a force of nature; it is woven deeply into human culture and survival, demanding respect, caution, and wisdom.

I invite viewers to reflect on fire’s duality, its power to give life and take it away, to consider our collective responsibility in harmonizing with this elemental force.