Rapid survey of the birds of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Ghana

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Chapter 5 Conservationists’ understanding of Afrotropical biological diversity has significant gaps and this paucity of information hampers their ability and efforts to formulate sound biodiversity conservation measures. The few biologically rich, surviving forests like the Atewa forest remain the only hopes for understanding some of these complexities and functioning in ecosystem processes. Forests in Ghana are fast disappearing and even considered one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world (FAO 2006). Unfortunately what is unknown in this vulnerable ecosystem eclipses what is known, making it one of the least studied and ecologically understood forest zones in the world (Laurance 1997). We strongly recommend, based on the results of this survey and prior work in the Atewa area, that the Atewa Range Forest Reserve should be fully protected and not opened up for development activities that could harm this site of global conservation priority. References Bakarr, M., B. Bailey, D. Byler, R. Ham, S. Olivieri and M. Omland (eds.). 2001. From the Forest to the Sea: Biodiversity Connections from Guinea to Togo. Conservation International. Washington, DC. 78 pp. Brown, K.S. 1997. Diversity, disturbance, and sustainable use of Neotropical forests: insects as indicators for conservation monitoring. Journal of Insect Conservation 1: 25-42. DeVries, P.J. 1987. The Butterflies of Costa Rica and their Natural History. Princeton University Press. 327 pp. DeVries, P J. and T. Walla. 2001. Species diversity and community structure in Neotropical fruit-feeding butterflies. Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 74: 1-15. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 2006. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005. Progress towards sustainable forest management. FAO Forestry paper 147. Rome. 322 pp. Fermon, H., M. Waltert, T.B. Larsen, U. Dall’Asta and M. Muhlenberg. 2000. Effects of forest management on diversity and abundance of fruit-feeding nymphalid butterflies in south-eastern Côte d’lvoire. Journal of Insect Conservation 4: 173-189. Joly, C. 2003. Contribution à l’étude des Charaxinae du Ghana (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Notes faunistiques de Gembloux 50: 27-47. Kremen, C. 1992. Assessing the Indicator Properties of Species Assemblages for Natural Areas Monitoring. Ecological Applications 2(2): 203-217. Kremen, C. 1994. Biological inventory using Target taxa: A Case Study of the Butterflies of Madagascar. Ecological Application 4(3): 407-422. Kerr, J.T., S. Alissa and P. Laurence. 2000. Indicator Taxa, Rapid Biodiversity Assessment and Nestedness in an Endangered Ecosystem. Conservation Biology 14: 1726-1734. Larsen, T.B. 1994. The Butterflies of Ghana and their Implications for Conservation and Sustainable Use. Compiled for Ghana Wildlife Department and IUCN. 54 pp. Larsen, T.B. 2005a. Rapid Assessement of Butterflies of Draw River, Boi-Tano and Krokosua Hills. Pp 33-39. In: McCullough, J., J. Decher and D.Guba Kpelle (eds.). A biological assessment of the terrestrial ecosystems of the Draw River, Bio-Tano, Tano Nimiri and Krokosua Hills forest reserves, Southwestern Ghana. RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 36. Conservation International, Washington, DC. Larsen, T.B. 2005b. The Butterflies of West Africa. Apollo books: Stenstrup Denmark. Larsen, T.B. 2006. The Ghana Butterfly Fauna and its contribution to the objectives of the protected Areas System. A report submitted to Ghana Wildlife Division. WDSP Report No. 63. 200 pp. Laurance, W.F. 1997. Introduction. Pp. 1-2. In: Laurance, W.F. and Bierregaard (eds). Tropical Forest Remnants Ecology. Management and Conservation of Fragmented Communities. Univ. of Chicago Press, IL. New, T.R. 1997. Are Lepidoptera an effective ‘Umbrella Group’ for Biodiversity Conservation Journal of Insect Conservation 1: 5-12. New, T.R., R.M. Pyle, J.A. Thomas, C.D. Thomas and P.C.Hammond. 1995. Butterfly Conservation Management. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 40: 57-83. Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y., E.H. Owusu, D.T. Daramani and A.A. Nuoh. 2001. Important Bird Areas in Ghana. Pp. 367 -389. In: Fishpool, L.D.C. and M.I. Evans (eds.). Important Bird Areas in Africa and Associated Islands: Priority sites for conservation. BirdLife International, Cambridge. Panzer, R. and M.W. Schwartz. 1998. Effectiveness of a vegetation-based approach to insect conservation. Conservation Biology 12: 693-702. 60 Rapid Assessment Program
Chapter 6 Additional comments on butterflies of the Upland Evergreen Forest of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Ghana Torben B. Larsen Introduction Chapter 5 of this report presents a good summary of the Atewa butterfly fauna based on the RAP survey and existing data and appears to be the first major review of butterflies in Ghana that has been written by Ghanaian researchers, which is promising for the future. The most important facts are well highlighted within that chapter: i) the uniqueness of the Upland Evergreen forest in Ghana (the small and damaged area in Tano Ofin aside), ii) the presence of three species of butterflies endemic to the Atewa Range, iii) the presence at Atewa of a significant number of species not found elsewhere in Ghana, and iv) the fact that with 700 species of butterflies certain to occur there, Atewa it is the most biodiverse locality in Ghana for that group. Aduse-Poku and Doku-Marfo thus leave little more to be said. Mylothris atewa However, some further notes on the endemic species Mylothris atewa (Atewa Dotted Border) are called for. The species seems first to have been collected in the 1960s by Father Theodor Maessen, a Roman Catholic priest who collected butterflies in Ghana for 32 years between 1950 and 1982, recording a total of more than 800 of the 930 species currently known from Ghana. However, only in 1980 was the species described by Dr. Lucien Berger, then curator for insects at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (MARC) in Tervuren, Belgium. The species is quite different in both sexes from any other member of its genus, of which there are at least 60 species throughout Africa. Both sexes can be recognized at a glance from any of the eight Mylothris that fly in Atewa. The species flies only in the higher level forests where the Upland Evergreen vegetation is found, probably because it feeds on a species of mistletoe (Loranthaceae) that is similarly restricted in range. The potential range of this butterfly is certainly less than 100 km 2 , but it occurs patchily and the actual inhabited area within the forest is much less than that. We can be almost certain that the species occurs nowhere else (should an overlooked population exist in Tano Ofin, it will be even smaller). The small area of occurrence, the small population size, the encroachment on the forest, and the threat to the forest by mining has led to almost certain ranking of this species on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List in the most threatened category of Critically Endangered (CR). Upland Evergreen Forest – a fossil habitat Mylothris atewa obviously evolved in the Upland Evergreen forest, probably during cooler periods when the extent of this forest was larger than it is today, since it could survive at lower elevations. The Atewa Forest has had a complex history. During the many dry periods of the past 20 million years the West African rainforests have been pushed into tiny refuge areas (one of which was centered on Ankasa and southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, another on Liberia and eastern Sierra Leone). The rest of the forest zones were covered with savannah. During such periods the Atewa Forest must have survived as a forest island inside the savannah. Dur- A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Eastern Ghana 61
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List of plant species recorded duri
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Appendix 4 Checklist of butterflies
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Checklist of butterflies from the A
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Species Checklist and abundance of
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Appendix 5 Ant species collected fr
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Appendix 6 List of bird species rec
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List of bird species recorded in th
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Appendix 8 Shrews and rodents colle
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Appendix 10 Atewa Range Forest Rese
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Appendix 11 Participants in the Con
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Appendix 12 IUCN Red-listed amphibi
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IUCN Red-listed amphibian, bird and
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Central America Africa & Madagascar
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A Rapid Biological Assessment of th
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Rapid survey of the birds of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Ghana

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