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Ghana

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The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests Africa

Abstract

Present-day Ghana covers the area of the ancient Ashanti kingdoms of pre-colonial Africa. They were among the most developed civilisations of the forest belt and traded gold for salt produced in mines in the Sahara to the north. Ghana’s forests were thus probably subject to relatively intense human influences several centuries before those of other parts of Africa. Ghana attained independence on 6 March 1957 but suffered serious economic decline in the post-independence period. The total collapse of Ghana’s economy in the late 1970s was followed by the Economic Recovery Programme of 1983 and a period of increased foreign investment. This led to an upturn in timber exports — traditionally a major source of foreign revenue — sawmills and logging operations were modernised and ports for log exports were rebuilt resulting in the recovery of the timber trade which had been declining. The timber industry is now contributing to improved economic conditions in the country but there must be concern that this will be at the expense of Ghana’s forests.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. WCMC, Cambridge, UK

    Donald Gordon

Authors
  1. Donald Gordon
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland

    Jeffrey A. Sayer

  2. World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK

    Caroline S. Harcourt  & N. Mark Collins  & 

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© 1992 IUCN

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Gordon, D. (1992). Ghana. In: Sayer, J.A., Harcourt, C.S., Collins, N.M. (eds) The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12961-4_21

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