Exhausted Ghana forest reserves said to put wildlife under threat

The wildlife situation in Ghana is said to be under threat.

This wildlife threat is due to the over-use of the nation’s forest reserves which are said to be exhausted.

At a panel session on biodiversity and wildlife hosted by the US Embassy in Accra June 13, 2013, Mr. David Kpelle, Manager of the Economical Department of the Ghana Wildlife Division explained that three million people in Ghana are forest dependent and this is a threat to the “wildlife conservation because most of the reserved areas are being exhausted”.

According to Mr Kpelle, farming in the country has seriously threatened wildlife and has virtually destroyed wildlife habitat with most of the species completely destroyed.

He indicated that another threat is uncontrolled hunting as well as international trade of skins of some animals.

Mr Kpelle added that as a result of this, there are nine critically endangered species, 41 endangered species because there are very few habitats and 943 vulnerable species like monkeys.

Bryan Christy, an American writer, also attributed the threat to wildlife to people he describes as poachers.

Bryan said about 62% of forest elephants were killed last two years and “this is a big threat to wildlife”.

Mr. Reuben Ottou of the Ghana Wildlife Society said despite the good awareness creation about wildlife reserves, it is still not adequate.

“There should be innovative measures in place and monitoring systems to monitor our wildlife reserves,” Ottou said.

Some stakeholders at the session suggested solutions to help curb these threats and save the wildlife reserves in Ghana such as consultation fora to address wildlife and biodiversity in general, laws should be enforced to prosecute any offender and there should be a national plantation programme.

By Dorcas Appiah