Tree landscapes are a living testimony of local history and culture that evolve through human interactions with the environment. An example of such a landscape is the “farmed parkland” of the West African savanna region, in which trees are scattered throughout cultivated and recently fallowed fields. While the dominant woody composition of farmed parkland is known to vary regionally by ethnic group, little attention has been paid in the studies of farmed parklands to social components that shape the cultural landscape dominated by particular tree species. In order to examine the potential role of trees in social systems, this paper explores Parkia biglobosa (Jacq.) Benth.-dominated farmed parkland in the Dagomba areas of northern Ghana using an ethnohistorical analysis that combines ethnographic and geographic data. The results illustrate both the effects that an ethnically specific tree tenure system has had on shaping a P. biglobosa-dominated landscape, and also the coevolution of Dagomba social systems and P. biglobosa landscapes in northern Ghana since the fifteenth century. The implications for future management of farmed parklands as cultural landscapes are also discussed.
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