Associating Management Effectiveness Scores to Conservation Activities: A Study of Gbele Resource Reserve, Ghana

Abstract

The study was designed to understand how the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) scores in a Protected Area (PA) were influenced by conservation activities. Data was collected from documents on major conservation activities of the PA. Conservation outputs indicators of annual numbers of patrols organized, mammal and Roan Antelope observed, illegal activities recorded, offenders arrested, and livelihood beneficiaries were related to the METT scores in Spearman correlation tests. There were no statistically significant relationships between each of the METT elements and number of patrols, mammals and Roan Antelope observations. However, illegal activities, offenders arrested, and livelihood beneficiaries strongly correlated positively with all the elements. Again, Pearson correlation tests among patrols, illegal activities and mammals observed were not statistically significant. The findings indicate the PA socio-economic benefits to communities was positive. However, management must eliminate illegal logging that suggestively caused decline in mammal observations (X=2895.6, Std.=867.7, Range=2507).