Building a sustainable forest monitoring system for the Takoradi Forest District
The Takoradi Forest District of the Western region of Ghana boasts of two major forests; The Cape Three Points Forest Reserve (CTPFR) and the Subri River Forest Reserve (SRFR). The CTPFR is a KBA, a GSBA and IBA. The SRFR, on the other hand, is the largest forest reserve in the country, with 160 square km
designated as a GSBA. Despite this high biological diversity, the ecological integrity of the reserves is increasingly threatened by human activities. The recent habitat destruction through illegal mining activities and indiscriminate lumbering in the reserves have heightened concerns over the current exploitation rates.
“Building a sustainable forest monitoring system for the Takoradi Forest District” Project aims at establishing the enabling framework for long-term protection of the Takoradi Forest District, using the joint effort of communities and park managers.
The project will build capacities of community monitoring teams and the officers from the Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission to use near real time deforestation alerts from GLAD to serve as early warning system to assess current threats and locate crime hotspots in order to respond quickly to forest threats.
Specifically, the project will seek to:
1. Improve local community capacity for the deployment of GFW and other spatial monitoring tools as foundation for enhanced monitoring of human activities within the forest;
2. Facilitate the adoption of spatial monitoring system by the communities and law enforcement agencies for long-term protection of the forest reserves; and
3. Produce and disseminate spatial data useful for informing rapid enforcement actions.
The project is funded by Global Forest Watch through their small grants programme
