Ghana has 24.3% or 5,517,000 hectares of forest cover and of this 6.4% or 353,000 hectares is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse form of forest.
Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-2005 intervals, Ghana lost 27.6% of its woodland habitat.
“Ghana’s forest cover lost an average 135,400 hectares per year.
This amounts to an annual deforestation rate of 1.82% between 1990 and 2000.”
Ghana lost 25.9% of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005 or around 1,931,000 hectares.
The reasons for deforestation include cutting down tress for Charcoal, pasture for livestock, farms, urban or industrial purposes mostly due to rapid population growth.
It is estimated that at the current rate of deforestation Ghana’s forest cover could completely disappear in 25 years.
Deforestation has been identified as a critical environmental issue and a study has disclosed that Ghana has the highest rate of deforestation out of 65 nations apart from Togo and Nigeria.
Source: rainforest.mongabay.com
Conclusion
As the population of the country grows rapidly and the forest reserves deplete even faster, the country stands the risk of starvation, drought and unemployment in the future. However if there is proper forest management and massive afforestation projects Ghana will save and also benefit from its forest.
According to Duncan Poore, a humanitarian, forest set aside for timber can still benefit wildlife while providing local communities with an income.
He said the two best way of protecting forests while generating income is through timber that certified as being sustainably farmed and through a programme known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation or REDD which has been touted in the United Nations Climate Change negotiations as a way to pay communities to protect trees.
This is what PAFA is doing with its cutting edge afforestation programmes with its partners to reverse the trend of forest deforestation in Ghana
PAFA will reclaim degraded land s lost to illegal mining popularly known as galamsey and sand winning.
Reforest and afforest Africa’s degraded lands for agricultural production or feed the poor and the industries for rapid socio-economic development of Africa.