The Forests in Ghana are Going, Going, Gone...
by Piper Wallingford
The rainforest of Ghana is wet and humid, birds call from the canopy and ants crawl over the leaf-littered dirt. In a country that is promoting ecotourism to foreigners, the rainforest is its greatest natural resource. But agricultural practices destroy significant amounts of forest each year, and government policy not only accepts and even promotes this deforestation.
When Ghana gained independence for the Great Britain in 1957, forest covered almost 22 million acres of the 92,000-square-mile country. In 2000, only 3.95 million acres of forest remain, and it continues to disappear at a rate close to 160,000 acres per year.
While logging by timber companies accounts for some deforestation in the West African nation, farmers are clearing much of the land for agricultural purposes. Many farmers grow subsistence crops like cassava, maize and yams that they can sell as a cash crop.
Unsustainable farming practices also contribute to forest degradation. Fields are rarely left fallow, which means that nutrients cannot return to the soil. Farmers then use harsh fertilizers to return soil productivity, and overuse leads to further degradation of the surrounding forests. As indigenous wildlife vanishes, pests lose their natural predators. Chemical pesticides also contribute to the loss of forest.
But the government provides no alternative, and government policy even leads to deforestation. Ghana's main export is cocoa, and the Ghanaian government controls the market for all cocoa sellers. Cocoa is sold to other countries, usually in Europe, providing significant duty returns that help the economy remain strong.
"Cocoa is Ghana's key cash crop," said Sampson Akligoh of Databank Group, a finance advisory company. "Cocoa duty for government in 2007 was 33.5 million Ghana cedis," which is about $33.5 million dollars. Because the economy depends on cocoa, the government does not promote sustainability, which might reduce current cocoa yields.
Although some cocoa depends on natural forest canopies for growth, Ghana is switching to cocoa that needs less shade and produces a higher yield. There is an incentive to clear the forest for more land to produce more cocoa.
Other government policies and laws further contribute to the loss of virgin rainforest. In Ghana, all forest land belongs to the government. Farmers do not recognize the forest as their own and do not cultivate it or protect it.
"People don't like the government and don't want to protect the government's trees," said Rebecca Teiko Dottey of Forest Watch Ghana, an organization that promotes forest conservation and farmer's rights.
Most farmers are also sharecroppers and do not own the land on which they farm. Because most sharecroppers receive only half or a third of their profit from cocoa sales, cocoa alone cannot always sustain a family. Many farmers harvest the trees on the land and sell the timber for additional income.
By continuing to own the forest; promote sharecropping; and control market prices of cocoa, the government is contributing to the degradation of Ghana's natural rainforests.
This will ultimately threaten the Ghanaian economy, to which ecotourism contributes a significant amount. Tourism is the third greatest contributor to the economy and is expected to rise to first by 2010. The growth rate of tourism averages 16 percent each year. Many tourists come to visit the monkey sanctuaries or Kakum National Park, where a suspended ropewalk hangs in the forest canopy. Distinct and unusual birds fly throughout Ghana, and many Europeans come to the county for bird watching.
"People want to see the aesthetic beauty of nature," said Augustus Asamoah of the Ghana Wildlife Society. "If the forests are gone, there is no beauty."
In a country that depends on the forests for income, the government must protect the forests. But their policies concerning farmers and forest ownership encourage degradation and deforestation. Unsustainable agricultural practices also contribute to forest loss. Government policy is torn between two methods of making money, trade and tourism, and only practice will preserve virgin rainforest for future generations.
