Tracing forest resource development in Ghana through forest transition pathways

Tropical deforestation is a serious environmental and economic problem that has become a global issuedue to climate change and biodiversity loss. Reducing tropical deforestation is seen as national andinternational priority, given its impacts on carbon emissions, biodiversity and rural livelihoods. Somedeveloping countries have achieved a forest transition: a shift from net deforestation to net reforesta-tion, whereby a few generic pathways have been identified. Such pathways usually depend on the social,economic, ecological and political contexts of a country. A better understanding of trends related to thepathways at the country level is necessary to identify which factors drive forest transition. This paperanalyzes forest resources development trends in Ghana by focusing on forest transition pathways anddiscussing the implications for a forest transition in the country. The analysis indicates that there is cur-rently no strong force toward a forest transition through any of the generic pathways. Existing trends areeither too small-scale or too ineffective. To accelerate a forest transition in Ghana, policy and manage-ment options should target measures that reduce current degradation of closed natural forests, increasethe area and productivity of commercial forest plantations, promote sustainable forest management, andsupport and encourage forest conservation and integration of trees into farming systems.