The state of biodiversity in Ghana: Knowledge gaps and prioritization

Abstract

Biodiversity conservation in tropical countries is of great importance due to high levels of endemism. Over the past century, Ghana has reserved over 300 ecologically important areas for biodiversity conservation, and a national strategy for this purpose has been developed under the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity. However, inadequate relevant information has been a drawback to implementation. This paper synthesizes relevant occurrence records of species, together with recently published data, and provides a current overview of the country's biodiversity. A map of the distribution of biodiversity study sites in recent years, the taxa studied, total richness of each taxonomic group (except microbes) and list of the species, are presented. The results indicate that in addition to insufficient off-reserve biodiversity knowledge, its acquisition over the past two decades covers only less than 40% of the protected reserves. It is argued that, with the current low-level of protection in protected areas, it is necessary to prioritize agro-ecological studies in order to obtain the baseline data needed for developing effective land-use strategies, as well as the right information to attract the voluntary participation of the public in biodiversity conservation.