bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.24.311209; this version posted September 24, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 1 Title: Traditional practices, knowledge and perceptions of fire use in a West African savanna 2 parkland 3 4 Esther Ekua Amoako1, 2*, James Gambiza1 5 1Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94, Grahamstown, South Africa 6 2Department of Ecotourism and Environmental Management, University for Development Studies, 7 P.O. Box 1882 Tamale, Ghana 8 *Corresponding author: E-mail address:
[email protected] (Esther Ekua Amoako) 9 Abstract 10 Understanding people’s fire practices, knowledge and perceptions of the use of fire and fire regimes 11 can inform fire management plans that could contribute to sustainable savanna conservation and 12 management. We investigated the frequency of fire use, control and perceptions of fire regime for 13 selected livelihood and socio-cultural activities in six districts in the Guinea savanna of Ghana. The 14 majority of respondents (83%) across the study districts indicated that they used fire once a year for at 15 least one of the following activities: land preparation, weed/grass/pest control, burning stubble after 16 harvest, bush clearing around homesteads, firebreaks, charcoal burning and hunting. The study showed 17 a higher frequency of fire use in the dry season for land preparation for cropping. Less than a fifth of 18 the respondents (17%) indicated that they do not use fire for any of the above activities.