Awareness, Understanding, and Knowledge of the Risk Management Framework (RMF) Among Forestry Stakeholders in Northern Ghana: Implications for Forest Sustainability and Climate Resilience

Forest ecosystems in Northern Ghana's Guinea Savannah landscape face mounting pressures from illegal logging, charcoal production, agricultural expansion, bushfires, and climate variability, threatening biodiversity, carbon stocks, and the parkland mosaic of shea, dawadawa, neem, and baobab that sustains local livelihoods. The Risk Management Framework (RMF) offers a structured approach to anticipate, assess, and mitigate such environmental risks, yet its operational integration into forest governance in Sub-Saharan Africa remains weak. This study examined the awareness, understanding, and applied knowledge of the RMF among forestry stakeholders in Northern Ghana and analysed the socio-demographic and institutional factors shaping engagement with risk-based environmental governance. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, a structured survey was administered to 160 stakeholders across five districts (West Mamprusi, Mamprugu Moagduri, North Gonja, Sagnarigu, and Tamale Metropolitan), complemented by five focus group discussions with Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) groups and seven key informant interviews with officers from the Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, a validated three-item Knowledge Scoring Index (Cronbach's α = 0.78), and thematic analysis. Results show that while overall awareness of RMF was high (94%), applied knowledge was substantially weaker, particularly regarding the institution responsible for RMF implementation (mean = 0.32). Education, occupation, and composite knowledge score significantly predicted RMF knowledge, while gender and community-leader status did not. Qualitative findings revealed three structural patterns: symbolic risk governance, a community-leader bottleneck in information transmission, and an awareness–understanding divergence in which stakeholders interpret formal RMF terminology through indigenous and CREMA-based practices. The findings demonstrate that human knowledge systems mediate forest ecosystem outcomes and underscore the need for institutional clarification, targeted capacity-building, and a phased digital tools roadmap, including mobile-based reporting platforms, satellite-derived monitoring dashboards, and integration of indigenous early warning indicators, to strengthen forest sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience in dryland Sub-Saharan Africa.