ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

of the off-reserve land was largely completed by the 1970s (Hansen, Lund et al. 2009). An inventory from 1996shows the area of off-reserve lands in various land use/land cover classes (Table 6.4).Table 6.4 Off-reserve land use/land cover in the high forest zone,southern Ghana from a 1996 inventoryLand Use/Land Cover Class Area (ha) Percentage of total areaNatural forest 664,104 12Secondary forest 183,906 3Fallow 1,440,594 26Newly cleared farms 439,330 8Cocoa farms 1,001,264 18Food crops 1,236,255 22Grass lands 439,330 8Other 102,170 2Total 5,506,953 100Source: Hansen et al., 2009According to Asante (2005), Ghana’s forests have always been regarded as a source of income regardless ofpolicies and legislation to protect and conserve the forest. During the early phases of land clearing in the HFZ,wood had little commercial value; domestic timber demand was limited and export demand was minimal untilafter World War II (Hansen and Treue 2008) when it rose rapidly. By the 1960s, off-reserve resources wereinsufficient to meet demand and the on-reserve share of exports rose. Harvest peaked at 2 million m 3 annually inthe 1960s, dropped during the economic crisis in the late 1970s-early 1980s, rebounded to pre-crisis levels butstabilized at around 0.9 million m 3 in 1995 (Hansen and Treue 2008). Generally, commercial demand was for alimited number of species and many areas were selectively logged, effectively contributing to forest degradation.An estimated 32 percent of forest reserves (exclusive of timber production and protection areas) in the HFZ wereclassified as degraded (Donkor and Vlosky, 2003). Over-exploitation of a number of species led to an export banon 14 commercial species in 1979 that was expanded with an additional four species in 1987 (Abugre andKazaare, 2010). These figures under-estimate actual removals; the current actual harvest is estimated to be >3times the official tally at about 3.3 million m 3 yr -1 (Hansen and Treue 2008) because of under-reporting and illegallogging.Illegal logging is widespread in Ghana and most (75 percent) is conducted by the informal sector who produce forthe domestic market, variously called chainsaw operators or pit-sawyers (Hansen and Treue 2008; Marfo, Halladayet al. 2010). Chainsaw milling for commercial purposes is illegal in Ghana but provides jobs for about 130,000people and livelihood support for 650,000 people (Marfo, Halladay et al. 2010). Additionally, chainsaw millingsupplies 84 percent of domestic lumber supply at prices 12-74 percent lower than conventional sawmill lumber(Marfo, Halladay et al. 2010). Hansen and Treue (2008) estimated that much of the illegal timber is taken fromforest reserves, ≤1.5 million m 3 yr -1 , which is clearly unsustainable. Commercial species are favored by the illegalloggers, who selectively harvest the higher-value species (Hansen and Treue 2008; Abugre and Kazaare 2010;Marfo, Halladay et al. 2010).Fuelwood accounts for two-thirds of the energy consumption of Ghana; 84 percent of households use firewoodand 13 percent use charcoal (Hansen, Lund et al. 2009). Even though much of the firewood comes fromdeadwood from farm and fallow land, fuelwood is estimated to consume 25-28 million m 3 yr -1 of raw wood(Hansen, Lund et al. 2009), which is about 7.5 to 8.5 times the estimated national volume of harvested timber.Charcoal is produced primarily in the transition and savanna zones but due to dwindling resources, more wood iscoming from the HFZ within reserves (Hansen, Lund et al. 2009). Our observations in the Northern Region werethat much of the locally produced charcoal was being transported to the south, and that younger farmers wereabandoning growing crops for the more lucrative charcoal production. Because of the low value of the on-reservetimber in the savanna zones, the reserves have been degraded by charcoal harvests (Wardell and Lund 2006).102 GHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION ASSESSMENT