Effects of anthropogenic activities on land-use dynamics in an upland tropical evergreen forest in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The Atewa Range Forest Reserve (ARFR) in Ghanais threatened by anthropogenic activities. This study used geospatial techniques to assess the effects of human activities on land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics in ARFR using Landsat satellite images of 1986, 1991, 2006 and 2016. Estimated Normalized Differential Vegetation Index showed a continuous decline in LULC, signifying increasing stress on vegetation in ARFR. Between 1986 and 2016, the rainforest reduced from 345.83km² to 183.48km²; logged land declined from 324.52km² to 186.21km²; farmland increased from 328.43km² to 384.68km²; and settlement expanded from 110.48km² to 354.91km², respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Land transition
• deforestation
• rainforest
• anthropogenic activities
• logging
• NDVI

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felicity Ghartey-Tagoe

Felicity Ghartey-Tagoe is a lecture at University of Education, Winneba. She has a Ph.D. (Botany), University of Cape Coast and an M.Phil.  University of Ghana (Botany) with specialty in plant Ecology.

Bernard Ekumah

Bernard Ekumah is a research assistant at the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic sciences, School of Biological Science University of Cape Coast.

Alexander Nii Moi Pappoe

Alexander Nii Moi Pappoe is an Associate Professor Department of Environmental science with M.Phil. (Botany), University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

Hugh Komla Akotoye

Akotoye Hugh K is a Professor of Botany, Department of Environmental scienceCape Coast, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.