*3.1.1 Digya National Park*

The Digya National Park (DNP) is the oldest and second-largest national park in Ghana. The park was established in 1909 with a spatial coverage of 650 km2 [40]. *Gain and Loss of Forest Cover in Ghana's Forest Reserves in Three Selected National Parks DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109823*


#### **Table 1.**

*Characteristics of satellite images used for the study.*

When the Volta Lake was created in 1965, DNP was expanded to 3478.3 km2 to provide protection for parts of the Lake. The Park was gazetted in 1971 as it has become an important habitat for wild animals and provides ecological benefits to Volta Lake. The park contains endangered animal species namely elephants, manatees, and black-and-white colobus. The sustainability of the park is thwarted by poaching of the animals for bush meat and ivory, large-scale grazing by cattle, bush fires initiated for hunting purposes, and logging for wood [41].

The analysis of the satellite images revealed that the park has a spatial extent of 4121.89 km2 . The variation, from what is reported in literature, is attributable to fuzziness in boundary between the park and surrounding vegetation. In 1986 and 2020, the park was dominated by close forest although the close forest has declined in extent while the open forest has increased in extent (**Figures 2** and **3**). The decrease in the extent of the close forest could be as a result of bushfires, and wood logging as observed by Dowsett-Lemaire and Dowsett [41].

Assessment of the extent of the forest cover revealed that 88.0% of the forest was close forest as of 1986 (**Figure 4**). The extent of the close forest declined to 82.8% as of 2020. The decline of 6.2% (**Figure 5**) in the close forest could be attributed to the impacts of wildfires and logging which characterized the park.

#### *3.1.2 Kakum National Park*

Kakum National Park (KNP), located in the coastal environs of the Central Region of Ghana, covers an area of 360 km<sup>2</sup> [42]. The Kakum National Park was established in 1931 as a reserve and was gazetted as a national park in 1992 [43]. The park is located about 30 km from Cape Coast, the Central Regional capital. The vegetation of the park is thick evergreen and semi-deciduous forests. Trees found in the forest include Wawa, Odum, Mahogany, bamboo, raffia palms, etc. The fauna includes the forest elephant, bongo, leopard, giant forest hog, duiker and about 200 species of birds [44]. The Park protects the headwaters of River Kakum. It is also a habitat for endangered wildlife species namely African forest elephants, Diana monkeys, yellowback duikers, giant bongo antelopes, birds and butterflies [45].

#### **Figure 2.**

*The land cover state of the Digya National Park as of 1986. Source: USGS, 1986.*

*Gain and Loss of Forest Cover in Ghana's Forest Reserves in Three Selected National Parks DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109823*

#### **Figure 4.**

*Comparison of extent of the land cover types of the Digya National Park in 1986 and 2020. Source: Authors' construct, 2022.*

#### **Figure 5.**

*The gain and loss in the land cover types in Digya, Kakum and Mole National Parks for the period 1986 to 2020. Source: Authors' construct, 2022.*

The spatial assessment of the Kakum National Park showed that the park is about 463.424 km<sup>2</sup> , which is not so different from the 360km<sup>2</sup> that is reported by Monney and Dakwa [42]. Two main land cover types were identifiable on the raw images of both 1986 and 2020: close and open forests. The close forest covered 327.637 km<sup>2</sup> while the open forest covered 35.787 km<sup>2</sup> (**Figure 6**). The spatial distribution of the land cover of the Kakum National Park in 1986 revealed that

#### **Figure 6.**

*State of the land cover of the Kakum National Park in 1986. Source: USGS, 1986.*

*Gain and Loss of Forest Cover in Ghana's Forest Reserves in Three Selected National Parks DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109823*

the park is a large close forest with patches of secondary forest dominated in the eastern, middle and western parts of the park. As of 2020, the spatial distribution of the land cover of the park was not too different from that in 1986 (**Figure 7**). However, the dominance of the open forest was in the north-eastern and -western parts of the park.

#### **Figure 7.**

*State of the land cover of the Kakum National Park in 2020. Source: USGS, 2020.*

The relatively stable nature of the Kakum National Park in terms of the two land cover types is attributable to the absence of two main anthropogenic pressures that influence the state of vegetation cover in Ghana. These are land conversion and bushfires. This is reported by the International Union for Conservation of Nature [37]. In their report, these pressures were absent in the park. However, the main pressure in the park is poaching of game.

In **Figure 8**, the close forest cover was 90.153% and 89.523% for 1986 and 2020 respectively. In **Figure 5**, the gain and loss were 0.63% equally.

#### *3.1.3 Mole National Park*

The Mole National Park (MNP) is the largest national park in Ghana. The Mole National Park covers about 4577 km2 and lies between latitudes 9°11′ and 10°10′N and longitudes 1°22′ and 2°13′W [46]. The Park is situated in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region of Ghana. It stretches to about 20 km north of Damongo, the capital of the Municipality and the Region. It was gazetted as a national park in 1971 for its outstanding wildlife conservation. The park contains a wide range of wildlife species which include elephants, hartebeests, kobs, waterbucks, bushbucks, warthogs, roan antelopes, duikers, oribis, baboons, patas monkeys, vervet monkeys, red-throated bee-eaters, Abyssinia ground hornbills, saddle-billed storks, agama lizards, crocodiles and bush snakes [47]. The Park is also rich in Baobab (*Adansonia Digitata*), Dawadawa (*Parkia biglobosa*), Silk Cotton (*Ceiba pentrandra*), *Burkea Africana, Lannea acida,* Shea tree (*Vitellaria paradoxa*), *Burkea africana* and *Tcrminalia aviccnnioides*. This indicates the ecological and biodiversity importance of the park.

The spatial distribution of the land cover types in 1986 is shown in **Figure 9** and that of 2020 is in **Figure 10**. The total estimated area of the park from the

#### **Figure 8.**

*Comparison of the extent of the land cover types of the Kakum National Park for 1986 and 2020. Source: Authors' construct, 2022.*

*Gain and Loss of Forest Cover in Ghana's Forest Reserves in Three Selected National Parks DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109823*

**Figure 9.** *State of land cover of mole National Park in 1986. Source: USGS, 1986.*

image is 4602.185 km<sup>2</sup> . The difference in area is attributed to differences in the definition of the boundary of the park. The park is dominated by open forest. The other classes are patches of riparian forest, marshy areas, bare grounds and shrubland.

In the year 1986, 86.73% of the park was open forest with the rest of the extent being riparian/marshy land, bare land and shrubland (**Figure 11**). By 2020, the total forest area constituted about 80.83%, a loss in open forest area of 5.90% (271 km<sup>2</sup> ) (**Figure 5**). The difference in the extent of the due to the human pressures of woodland conversion, bushfires, and logging for local timber and charcoal production. IUCN [37] rated woodland conversion and annual bushfires high among the pressures that influence the state of the park negatively.

### **4. Discussion**

The study found that about 67% of the national parks use unsustainable conservation practices leading to a high forest cover loss as exemplified in Digya and Mole National Parks. In the case of Mole National Park, located in the interior savannah ecological zone, managers face the problems of annual bushfire, forest conversion to farmland, wood harvesting for charcoal production, and timber exploitation for

**Figure 10.** *State of land cover of mole National Park in 2020. Source: USGS, 2020.*

local building material and export. Similarly, the Digya National Park, situated in the forest-savannah ecotone, suffers related pressures such as bushfire, logging for fuel wood, and intensive grazing by cattle [37]. The impacts of these pressures are the conversion of close forest to open forest and bare ground, particularly in the Mole National Park. The most affected tree species are rosewood (*Pterocarpus erinaceus)* (lumbering and export)*, Burkea africana* (charcoal production) and *Kaya senegalensis* (roofing). There is harvesting of rosewood resulting in a decline in the close/ open forest cover in the Digya and Mole National Parks making the rosewood an endangered species [48]. Also, there are 33% unsustainable conservation measures resulting in a minimal close forest cover loss of 0.63% in the Kakum National Park. The reasons for the low forest cover loss are that the communities surrounding the Kakum National Park appear to observe protected area arrangement. There is also strict enforcement of protective regulations due to the importance of the Park to national tourism development. Furthermore, the site of the Kakum National Park close to the rainforest makes natural regeneration and shedding of leaves happen simultaneously. Hence, the forest cover loss is minimal. Another finding is that the forest cover change is not only attributed to anthropogenic factors but climatic and ecological factors as well. For example, the bare grounds in the Mole National Park result from insufficient natural regeneration due to the prolonged dry season (climate-induced).

*Gain and Loss of Forest Cover in Ghana's Forest Reserves in Three Selected National Parks DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109823*

**Figure 11.**

*Extent of the land cover types of Mole National Park for 1986 and 2020. Source: Authors' construct, 2022.* 

### **5. Conclusion**

This chapter assessed the gain and loss in the forest cover of three selected national parks in Ghana. The Mole National Park was in the northern Savannah zone, the Digya National in the middle zone and the Kakum National Park in the coastal zone. These parks have unique ecological, environmental and socioeconomic characteristics. Excessive disturbance in the forest cover state will compromise these characteristics. The analysis of the gain and loss in the forest cover is of relevance for the effective management of these natural resources. As expected, each of the parks exhibited dynamism in terms of gains and losses for the period 1986 to 2020. No detectable grass/bare areas were found in the Digya and the Kakum National Parks. Detectable grass/bare areas were recorded in the Mole National Park.

The Digya National Park experienced the largest extent of gain and loss. The close forest lost 6.28% of its initial cover to open forest. The Kakum National Park experienced the least of changes. The park lost 0.63% of its close forest to open forest for the period.

The Mole National Park experienced the most critical gains and losses in the forest cover. Bare/shrubland gained over open forest. The bare/shrubland gained a little above 6%. The losses forest cover in each of these parks may appear small but they make the parks vulnerable to the pressures of deforestation and degradation. It is therefore recommended that Forestry Commission of Ghana through its divisions should initiate plantation activities in the degraded areas of the park or strengthen the protective measures to allow and maximize natural regeneration in the parks. It is further recommended that similar studies be conducted in the other parks to ascertain the forest cover dynamism for effective management decisions.

*Tropical Forests - Ecology, Diversity and Conservation Status*
