Assessing the socio-economic stressors of ghana’s only strict nature reserve: Kogyae

Abstract

The paper assessed the integrity of Kogyae, Ghana’s only Strict Nature Reserve, as a Category Ia protected area, against the backdrop of pressures and threats posed by anthropogenic drivers. Primary data were derived from a combination of approaches namely, Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Areas Management Methodology, participatory appraisal approach and institutional data gathering. The results identified adjacent land use, poverty in nearby communities, and high population density as the underlying threats facing the reserve. These had fuelled proximate threats including bush fires, logging and poaching. The study revealed also that the recent re-zoning of the reserve by extending its boundaries to enhance its ecological viability has not only strained the relationship between local people and Officials of the Wildlife Division, but become the root cause of most of the underlying threats. Considering the pressure and threats of Kogyae, the study proposes two options for resolving the situation: granting the communities’ request to engage in ecologically friendly activities in the ‘Special Use Zone’ by re-categorizing the zone appropriately according to IUCN definition, or resettlement of the communities elsewhere to free the reserve from human activities.