The impact of illegal farming on biodiversity of Sui river forest reserve in Sefwi Wiawso forest District, Ghana
Loading...
Date
2015-11-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Despite substantial loss of natural forest in Sui River Forest Reserve by human disturbances, mainly
illegal farming, little is known about the impact of the disturbances on biodiversity status of the
forest reserve. To investigate the impact of illegal farming on biodiversity of Sui River Forest
Reserve, flora and fauna were sampled in three forest compartments (163, 106 and 171) within the
reserve. Compartment 163 was heterogeneous having two forest types, undisturbed forest (UF) and
disturbed forest (DF) whilst compartments 106 and 171 were homogeneous. Compartments 106
was undisturbed forest and 171 was disturbed forest. The undisturbed forests (UF) served as control
plots. In each forest block within the compartments, two 25m x 25m plots were randomly
demarcated and these were subdivided into twenty-five 5m x 5m subplots. Fifteen (15) of the
subplots accounting for 60% of the plot area were randomly sampled for tree species, regeneration
of tree seedlings, herbs and fauna. Species diversity was determined using Shannon-Wiener
Diversity Index (H1). Species richness for flora and fauna in the undisturbed Forest (UF) was
quantitatively higher than in the disturbed Forest (DF). Celtis mildbraedii was identified as the
dominant and an indicator species for the undisturbed forest whilst Musanga cecropioides and
Trema orientalis were identified as dominant and indicator species for the disturbed forest. Illegal
farming had a direct impact on the regenerative capacity of the reserve resulting in colonisation by
an invasive species Chromolaena odorata which displaced native species resulting in poor
regeneration in the disturbed areas. The widespread loss and fragmentation of the original closed
canopy of the moist semi-deciduous forest and the destruction of suitable habitat niches through the
removal of forest vegetation in illegally farmed areas resulted in low fauna species and low
diversity in the disturbed forest. The findings of the study revealed that illegal farming has
negatively impacted on the biodiversity in Sui River Forest Reserve. Thus sustainable forest
management is required to reduce the forest degradation process and biodiversity loss.
Description
A Thesis Submitted To the Department of Theoretical and Applied
Biology, College Of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science
And Technology – Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the
Requirements for the Award of Master of Science in
Environmental Science,