{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T09:04:09Z","timestamp":1780391049415,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Koozakar LLC","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["GJESS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The present study explores the association between Cultural Legitimacy of Religion (CLR), Developmental Pressure (DP), and Environmental Conservation Outcomes (ECO), with Environmental Ethical Orientation (EEO) as the mediator and Religious Sacredness of Natural Sites (RSNS) as a moderator, respectively. A positivist and quantitative cross-sectional methodological approach were used, where data were collected using a sample of 474 undergraduate students undertaking their degrees at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and analysed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS\u2011SEM). The sample consist of students whose curricula include religious studies, environmental ethics, and human-environment relations, that is why the study is viewed through the prism of this particular educational environment instead of projecting on the rest of the sub-Saharan African communities. Results revealed that there is no statistically significant direct effect of CLR on EEO or ECO, but works as a conditional interactional construct. DP indicates that it has negative relation with EEO, but EEO has positive relation with ECO, thus supporting its role as the key ethical channel that generates the conservation behavior by transferring upstream cultural and developmental forces to it. RSNS moderated a series of pathways and indicates normative resilience to developmental erosion, as well as substitutional dynamic in the circumstances demonstrating the high CLR. These results further elaborate the Value-Belief-Norm and Institutional Theory models to a sub-Saharan African educational context and provide evidence-compatible information on environmental policymaking based on the cultural perspective. The study, in particular, indicates that conservation interventions in Ghanaian fast urbanising settings can be enhanced with the consideration of the association of religious sacredness perception with official moral education to carry pro-conservation moral commitments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.69798\/10241977","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T08:09:57Z","timestamp":1780387797000},"page":"25-43","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Influence of Cultural Legitimacy, Developmental Pressure, on Environmental Conservation: The Mediating Role of Ethical Orientation and the Moderating Influence of Religious Sacredness"],"prefix":"10.69798","volume":"3","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2362-8493","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eric","family":"Mensah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cape Coast, Ghana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5777-1936","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin","family":"Owusu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cape Coast, Ghana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3195-7334","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Emmanuel","family":"Asante","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cape Coast, Ghana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-7745-491X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Isaac","family":"Woode","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cape Coast, Ghana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"50185","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]]},"container-title":["Global Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainability"],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T08:09:57Z","timestamp":1780387797000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/koozakar.com\/journals\/article\/KJ-44319960"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.69798\/10241977","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]]}}}