African cities, faced with rapid urbanization and haphazard land use practices, struggle to address their fast-declining urban green space (UGS). Yet the spatial extent of UGS, and the influence of city planning legislation and frameworks, remains largely unexplored. Using a case study of Kumasi, Ghana, this study draws on mixed methods to address three research questions: (i) How did Kumasi’s UGS evolve from 1991 to 2019? (ii) How do city planning, legislation and the regulatory framework influence UGS management? (iii) What is the land governance institutional culture for managing UGS? Findings from the spatial analysis indicate a loss of over 80 per cent in Kumasi’s UGS between 1991 and 2019. Although unplanned urbanization, poor urban planning and political interference were frequently discussed as contributory factors, the foundational cause was found to lie in the complex and conflicting relationship between land governance agencies. This situation has resulted in the absence of a culture of coordination with regard to urban development, particularly towards UGS.

非洲城市面临快速的城市化和随意的土地使用做法，努力解决快速下降的城市绿地 (UGS) 问题。然而，UGS 的空间范围以及城市规划立法和框架的影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索。本研究使用加纳库马西的案例研究，利用混合方法解决三个研究问题：(i) 库马西的 UGS 从 1991 年到 2019 年是如何演变的？(ii) 城市规划、立法和监管框架如何影响 UGS 管理？(iii) 管理 UGS 的土地治理制度文化是什么？空间分析的结果表明，1991 年至 2019 年间，库马西的 UGS 损失了 80% 以上。 尽管无计划的城市化、糟糕的城市规划和政治干预经常被视为促成因素，发现根本原因在于土地治理机构之间复杂且相互冲突的关系。这种情况导致在城市发展方面缺乏协调文化，特别是在 UGS 方面。