Responses to trade-offs between expanding tree crops and provisioning services in a transitioning multifunctional landscape in Ghana’s Eastern Region

Expanding tree crops in West Africa is changing landscape structure and the availability of landscape services, yet little research addresses how users cope with these changes. This study examines how users manage trade-offs in landscape services and what factors influence their strategies, focusing on changes in the availability, use, and source of landscape services and the impact of sociodemographic factors, production systems, and perceptions of substitutability. A survey among 245 farmers (93%) and other residents (7%) in a transitioning mosaic landscape dominated by cocoa and oil palm in Ghana’s Eastern Region was conducted, supplemented by field observations. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests based on contingency tables were used to analyze changes in landscape service use and sources over 20 years. Over the past 20 years, people’s use of commercial crops and agricultural water has increased by 8–11%, while the use of mushrooms (56%), bushmeat (68%), snails (53%) and timber (23%) declined. Users increasingly turned to alternative land-cover types and markets or substituted landscape services with domesticated, technological, or synthetic alternatives. The dominant tree crop and respondents’ age, occupation, and substitutability perceptions influence responses to dwindling landscape services. To prevent further decline in landscape services, all sources, both natural and human-modified ones, should be considered. Efforts must balance production and nature conservation, raise awareness of landscape dynamics, and enhance the resilience of vulnerable people. Awareness is crucial, as the availability of alternatives may reduce rural people’s sense of urgency and willingness to act for conservation.