Folktales for Environmental Conservation and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

This collection brings together Ghanaian folktales concerned with environmental conservation, biodiversity, human-nature relationships and Indigenous ecological knowledge, drawn from research on African oral traditions, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and sustainable development.
It has its roots in the University of Ghana's BANGA-Africa Project III Seed Research Grant, which documented 65 Kusaal folktales from the Kusaug traditional area of the Upper East Region with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, revealing ecological knowledge concerning animals, plants, forests, water bodies and hunting practices. The collection was expanded through the SEECAP Project, and further enriched by Kusaal folktales from the Africa-UniNet S-GEDSI project; where environmental conservation or ecological knowledge is a story's dominant theme, it is presented here.
Through narratives involving animals, trees, forests and rivers, these folktales communicate values of environmental stewardship, biodiversity conservation and restraint in the use of natural resources, showing that environmental responsibility is often inseparable from moral conduct and community wellbeing. The collection offers culturally grounded resources for climate education and environmental humanities, and speaks to SDGs 13, 14 and 15.