Valuation of ecosystem services for assessment of cost of deforestation, and analysis of its drivers with implications for sustainable forest management in Ghana

The aim of this thesis was to estimate the cost of deforestation and to identify its drivers in the high forest zone of Ghana. The purpose was also to raise awareness about the severity of deforestation and to offer suggestions for its control with a view to contributing to climate change mitigation. To compute the cost of deforestation, the values of four ecosystems’ services were estimated, employing opportunity and replacement cost techniques. The costs of wildfires resulting from loss of food and tree crops of communities were also estimated and deforestation-related behavior modeled using questionnaire surveys. Total Economic Values Framework, von Thunen and Chayanov models formed the theoretical basis of this work. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multinomial and ordinal logistic regression techniques. The results show that US$133,650,000 of gross revenue from the four ecosystems’ services is lost annually due to deforestation (Article I). In the study area, the annual loss in food and tree crops per farmer due to wildfires was US$232 (Article II). Furthermore, farmers who acquired land on either lease holding or sharecropping basis were more likely to engage in short-rotation farming system, which leads to deforestation, compared to those who acquired land as gift or inheritance or on customary basis (Article III). In the studied protected area (Article IV), subsistence agriculture and large in-migration of people were the most important driving forces behind deforestation. It can be concluded that better employing the indigenous knowledge of how to mitigate and adapt to wildfires would provide a sound basis for an improved wildfire management strategy. To obtain a more equitable distribution of forest benefits, the local policies need to be reformed with particular attention to the sharecrop and leasehold farmland holding systems. Forest revenue sharing systems, including potential payments from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), must include farmland holders under these holding systems. To enhance Ankasa Conservation Area’s contribution to climate change mitigation, priority must be given to livelihood improvement and ecosystem services provision in its management.