Data accessible on the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform indicates that Ghana has lost 18, 000 hectares of primary forest, a nearly 70% increase from 2021 and the biggest increase in forest loss of any country in recent years.

“This is particularly concerning because Ghana has little primary forest remaining,” part of a publication on Mongabay said.

Primary forests are among the most dense, wild, and ecologically significant forests on the planet. They are found all over the world, from the snow-bound northern area to the sweltering tropics, but 75% of them are located in just seven countries.

“But it’s important to notice and recognize that Ghana’s forest loss of 18,000 ha is small compared with the countries with the biggest forest loss," said Elizabeth Goldman, GFW senior research manager as also quoted by Mongabay.

According to her, the loss in Ghana appears to be encroaching on protected areas, which are the country's only remaining tracts of primary forest.

“And some of the loss is adjacent to cocoa farms and has a pattern of small-scale clearings that are likely associated with cocoa production, while other patches of loss appear to be linked to fire and gold mining.”

According to FAO, 21.7% of Ghana, or about 4,940,000 ha, is forested. Primary forest, the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest, accounts for 8.0% (395,000) of this total.
Ghana lost an average of 125,400 ha (1.68% per year) between 1990 and 2010. Ghana lost 33.7% of its forest cover, or around 2,508,000 hectares same period.

The living forest biomass in Ghana's forests contains 381 million metric tons of carbon. According to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the country has 1185 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles. 0.8% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 3.0% are threatened. Ghana has at least 3725 vascular plant species, 1.2% of which are endemic. The IUCN categories I-V protects 4.6% of Ghana.

GLOBAL DATA

Tree cover loss across the world, which includes loss of primary, secondary, and planted forests, decreased by 10% in 2022, according to GFW, but this is due to a decrease in fire-related losses, particularly in Russia's boreal forests, which experienced a 34% decrease in tree cover loss between 2021 and 2022.
2022 also saw a 28% decrease in fire-related loss from 2021, though some areas still experienced significant fire-related loss, such as Spain, which had major fires.

“Meanwhile, globally non-fire losses increased slightly in 2022. Therefore, the decline in global tree cover loss is not an indication of any positive trend,” Mikaela Weisse, director of GFW.

According to GFW, fresh leadership could help safeguard the forest. Frances Seymour, a distinguished senior fellow in WRI's forests program, offered Brazil's President Lula da Silva as an example.
Lula and his administration have pledged to halt deforestation in the Amazon and other Brazilian biomes by 2030, combining command and control actions with a longer-term focus on sustainable economic development.

Frances points out that Lula had previously drastically reduced deforestation in the Amazon.
She also mentions Ajay Banga, the World Bank's newly appointed president, as an example.
Ajay has stated his intention to combat climate change. Ajay ordered the lender's 16,000 employees to "double down" on development on his first day on the job.

“It’s time to double down on those opportunities because time is running out,” she said