WETLANDS DISTURBANCE IN NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA: AN INDIGENOUS CONSERVATION APPROACH

The study examined wetlands disturbances and the use of indigenous conservation approach in Northern Region of Ghana. A combination of Salafsky and Battisti model were used to quantify disturbances, while principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to synthesize environmental data in order to produce an ordination of sites based on environmental variables. A total of ten environmental disturbances (bushfire, water abstraction, animal trampling, tree felling, farming activities, grass harvesting, channel incision, hunting, illegal fishing method and grazing pressure) were identified. Disturbances were much more severe and widespread in the long dry season (6 -7 months), since most activities for instance grazing, water abstraction and grass harvesting) were carried-out. Increase in disturbance regime were observed in communities with high human population, and varied along the two main seasons. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that farming activities, bushfires, water abstraction, animal trampling and grazing pressure were the key human-led factors that severely impacted the six wetlands. The first two axes jointly explained 66.73% variance in disturbance regime and their spatial occurrence across the sites (axis I= 38.37% and axis II = 28.36%). Although disturbances did not differ in all sites (F = 1.66, p = 0.15), the two riparian wetlands, tended to show much resilience to disturbances than the marshes and constructed wetland. Water abstraction for dry season irrigation and farming activities in the wet season, contributed in reduced water level in the swamp forest and constructed wetlands (R2 = 0.658, p=0.05). Our results revealed that human-led disturbances have greatly impacted on the wetlands, which play a critical role in livelihood support of rural communities and a gene pool. Thus, to ensure the restoration of the functional status of wetlands, implementation of the proposed conservation intervention in this study, must be enforced by traditional/indigenous conservation approaches and possibly adopted as part of national wetland policy framework.