<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Land-use and land-cover change in both forest reserves and off-reserves is a critical issue in sub Saharan Africa. Deforestation and conversion of forest land to agricultural land continue to be one of the major environmental problems in Africa, and for that matter, Ghana cannot be exceptional; and its resultant effect is the loss in the ecological integrity and the quality of forests, resulting in carbon loss and the resultant climate change effects (FAO 2016). The study area covers the Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) of the Mole National Park in Ghana, and this study reveals that the area is well endowed with a diverse composition and structure of woodland including dense, open and riverine stretches, which – under the national definition of forest – qualifies as forest. The results reveal that there had been an annual deforestation rate of 0.11% over the period of review. It was concluded from the study that woodland had high carbon stocks with an average carbon of 80 tC/ha, the highest being 194 tC/ha and the lowest being 7 tC/ha, which was recorded in the dense woodland and grassland respectively. The fluxes within the land sector in the study area are moderate and the potential of the area to qualify for as REDD+ is very high. However, the drivers of deforestation, especially bush fires and illegal timber harvesting, are challenges that need to be addressed.</p></abstract>

Land-use and land-cover change in both forest reserves and off-reserves is a critical issue in sub Saharan Africa. Deforestation and conversion of forest land to agricultural land continue to be one of the major environmental problems in Africa, and for that matter, Ghana cannot be exceptional; and its resultant effect is the loss in the ecological integrity and the quality of forests, resulting in carbon loss and the resultant climate change effects (FAO 2016). The study area covers the Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) of the Mole National Park in Ghana, and this study reveals that the area is well endowed with a diverse composition and structure of woodland including dense, open and riverine stretches, which – under the national definition of forest – qualifies as forest. The results reveal that there had been an annual deforestation rate of 0.11% over the period of review. It was concluded from the study that woodland had high carbon stocks with an average carbon of 80 tC/ha, the highest being 194 tC/ha and the lowest being 7 tC/ha, which was recorded in the dense woodland and grassland respectively. The fluxes within the land sector in the study area are moderate and the potential of the area to qualify for as REDD+ is very high. However, the drivers of deforestation, especially bush fires and illegal timber harvesting, are challenges that need to be addressed.

Drivers of land use change and carbon mapping in the savannah area of Ghana

Institute of Research, Innovation and Development

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Folia Forestalia Polonica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Drivers of land use change and carbon mapping in the savannah area of Ghana"}

Land-use and land-cover change in both forest reserves and off-reserves is a critical issue in sub Saharan Africa. Deforestation and conversion of forest land...

Drivers of land use change and carbon mapping in the savannah area of Ghana

Published Online: Feb 10, 2018

Page range: 287 - 311

Received: May 06, 2017

Accepted: Nov 02, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ffp-2017-0031

Keywords
deforestation, land use change, carbon mapping, remote sensing, REDD+

© 2017 Addo Koranteng et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Drivers of land use change and carbon mapping in the savannah area of Ghana

Published Online: Feb 10, 2018

Page range: 287 - 311

Received: May 06, 2017

Accepted: Nov 02, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ffp-2017-0031

Keywordsdeforestation, land use change, carbon mapping, remote sensing, REDD+

© 2017 Addo Koranteng et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
deforestation, land use change, carbon mapping, remote sensing, REDD+