The role of religious education in environmental conservation in Ghana

Abstract

Several studies including De Witt (2000), Tucker and Grimm (2001), Motawalli (2002), Dryzek) (2006) Ntiamua-Baidu (2008) and Deneulin and Bano (2009), have shown that religion or faith-related organisations are among the key players that can assist in instilling environmental or ecological consciousness in people. Similarly, Religious Education (RE) is one of the avenues through which environmental or ecological consciousness can be transmitted to people, particularly the youth. Nevertheless, RE has not been effectively used to play this role in Ghana’s quest in the ght against environmental or ecological problems. A major reason is that majority of instructors of RE lack the requisite skill to carry out the task. is paper focuses on how ideas, beliefs and practices of religions can help to ensure sustainable use of natural resources for the present and future generations. Much emphasis is placed on the extent to which RE can be used as a conduit of such ideas, beliefs and practices to address some of the environmental problems of sub-Saharan Africa, using Ghana as a case study. In doing this, the three dominant religions in Ghana—African Traditional Religion, Christianity and Islam—are used to illustrate the point of the paper. e paper argues that with the right application, RE can help inculcate into the citizenry the needed values and morals that can ensure that the environment is treated with the dignity that it deserves