Vacillant planning for creating green cities: The empirics of urban greenery in Kumasi, Ghana

Greeneries contribute enormously to the health and physical wellbeing of individuals and sustainability of cities. This notwithstanding, greeneries in African cities have significantly declined over time. There have thus been several calls, notably, to plan for and create green cities by incorporating greeneries in homes and urban neighbourhoods. Achieving this requires local understanding, acceptance and positive attitudes of residents toward planning for and integrating greeneries in homes and the environment. There is however dearth of research in Ghana on the knowledge and willingness of households and city officials to plan for the creation of green cities as well associated barriers. This paper responds to this gap by employing the multi -case approach, comprising of two suburbs (a high- [Nhyiaeso] and low-income [Aboabo] neighbourhoods) in Kumasi, Ghana. A total of 380 households and various relevant city planning agencies were engaged in semi-structured interviews. The findings show considerable but variegate understanding of green cities, which is influenced by several factors such as study community, residency status, housing typology and educational attainment. Most households in both communities indicated their willingness to incorporate greeneries in homes and neighbourhoods. However, resource constraints, nonchalant attitude of some residents and poor maintenance practices, were reported as major barriers that impede the efforts to incorporate greens in homes and communities. Several recommendations are proffered. The study concludes that promoting and achieving the benefits of green cities can be shaped by the knowledge of it; hence, the need to consciously and continually educate households on their importance.