ABSTRACT
A three-year project (R7330: Peri-Urban Natural Resources Management at the Watershed Level – Kumasi, Ghana, February 1999-March 2002) was designed as an important element in the progressive research programme under the UK Department for International Development (DFID) Natural Resources Systems Programme (NRSP) peri-urban interface (PUI) production system in Kumasi, Ghana. Kumasi has grown rapidly in recent years from a population of 71,000 in 1948 to the 2000 census estimate of 1.17 million (Government of Ghana, 2002), with commensurate physical expansion (see Figure 19.1). Pressures on land for building and for extraction of building aggregates has increased within the boundary shown in Figure 19.1 and up to about 30km-40km beyond. Most of the land annexed for these activities was traditionally under agricultural land use.
