Tissue culture regeneration potential of African rosewood in Ghana: institutional variables and implications for sustainability
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Date
SEPTEMBER, 2016
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Abstract
By examining the effect of trade and its concomitant effects of exploitation on the conservation and management of African Rosewood in Ghana, the cost of the shift to indigenous savannah species timber species such as African Rosewood is demonstrated in this thesis. Institutional determinants such as the "Chinese factor", a lopsided export market for Air dried lumber, abuses of the legal process, regulatory and administrative lapses amongst other factors continue to fuel the unbridled exploitation of the species. Using results from this study conducted in the natural distribution range of the species in 6 regions of Ghana, the results indicate that there are significant disturbances within the population structure of African rosewood, at both the regional and national levels. The plot of the mean stem number per diameter class nationally does not present an inverse J-shaped curve as evidence of a balanced diameter structure of African Rosewood in Ghana. It further highlights the effect of the arbitrary interim 20cm dbh interim felling limit using the observed disturbances in the 20cm, 30cm, 40cm, 50cm and 60cm+ diameter classes. Utilising this data, questions on the sustainability of dynamic stock and the stock above the felling limit are raised. The study demonstrates the amenability of tissue culture to be successfully applied to Pterocarpus erinaceus, showing that the optimum combination of cytokinin treatment for the experimental set up is observed from the results to be 2.0mg/L BAP and 1.0mg/L Kinetin. In conclusion, the study recommends a tissue culture oriented conservation or management programme for African Rosewood.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
Master of Science degree in Environmental Science,