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Deforestation In Ghana Essay

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2.1.1 Deforestation in Ghana
Numerous legitimate concerns have been raised about the devastating environmental impact of extensive destruction of forests. Scientist, economist, environmentalist and many others have deliberated that the prevailing patterns of deforestation are bound to wreak havoc on the earth as the home for mankind and as the source of sustenance (Broader 1989). Deforestation is a serious problem bedevilling the world and it is simply defined as the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land use such as arable land, urban use, logged area or wasteland (Tejaswi 2007).
However, deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa is by no means a recent phenomenon. As far back as 450 B.C Herodotus document losses of forest resources in …show more content…

The rate of forest loss in the country is so extensive and rapid and so, it is therefore a challenge to get the exact figures for the rate of deforestation (Benhin & Barbier 2001).

2.1.2 Causes of Deforestation in Ghana
The rate of deforestation in Ghana over the years has been attributed to number of factors in different studies and reports. Various studies and reports have enumerated a number of these causative factors and activities of forest loss in the country.
First and foremost, Hawthorne & Abu-Juam (1995) reported that in the mid1990s many of Ghana’s forest reserve where already in a degraded state largely due to over harvesting of trees for time, farming and forest fires.
Again, a study carried out to analyse the level of dependence on forest resources and its effects on forest management in Ghana stated that there is a heavily dependence of the local people in the forest fringe communities on their farming practices and forest products for subsistence (Appiah et al. 2007). These farming practices include shifting cultivation and slash and burn which in the end lead to destruction of forest tree species and associated …show more content…

1995), it was stated that vegetation indices (VIs) obtained from remotely sensed data may be used as a biophysical indicator. VIs, based upon digital brightness values, attempt to measure biomass or vegetative vigour. A VI is calculated as a result of the combination of many spectral values that are added (Campbell 2002).The use of VIs as an indicator of forest structure may be an important tool for landscape planning, and for decision on conservation and restoration strategies (Freitas et al. 2005). Various vegetation indices (VIs) have developed to measure vegetative vigour and biomass with most popular ones using red and near infrared wavelengths to emphasize the difference between the strong absorption of red electromagnetic radiation the scatter of near infrared radiation (Lu et al. 2004). Examples of the many vegetation indices include the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Normalised Burn Ratio (NBR) and many

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