ABSTRACTThis study examines perceptions of the environment in farming communities in the forest ecotone of Ghana. It places local knowledge within a socio‐economic and historical context and argues that knowledge is continually evolving, attempting to solve existing problems and discovering new ones. It maintains that favourable conditions exist in farming communities for environmental actions and development approaches based on sustainable development, since these areas have suffered from the negative effects of degradation. However, major constraints exist within the wider political economy and policy framework, which is still locked into environmentally‐hostile export‐oriented production, and political models which marginalize rural p