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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Tropical Forests
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1540910
This article is part of the Research Topic Global Excellence in Forest Science: Africa View all articles
Trees Outside Forests in Ghana: Current State, Spatial Distribution and Future Projection
Provisionally accepted- Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Kumasi, Ghana
Trees Outside Forests (TOF) are increasingly recognized for their vital contributions to environmental sustainability and socio-economic development. TOF are undervalued and are seldomly included in national inventories and international reporting frameworks particularly in Africa. There is the need to estimate state, spatial distribution and future projection of TOF in Ghana at the national scale using effective tools like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques. ESRI global land cover data at 10m resolution was used for this study between 2017 and 2023 and Quantum GIS Modules for Land-Use Change Simulation (MOLUSCE) was used to predict future TOF. The results show that the area occupied by TOF declined from 38.2% to 33.8% and at an annual rate of -2.02% whereas the area occupied by trees inside forests increased from 10.4% to 10.7% in Ghana from 2017 to 2023 respectively. The decline is expected to continue in Ghana with an annual rate of -0.79% by 2030. Ashanti region and Sekyere Afram Plains North had the largest area of TOF whereas Greater Accra region with its four districts had the least TOF during the study period in Ghana.TOF hold the second largest area in Ghana and should be recognized in climate change mitigation initiatives in Ghana and the nationwide forest monitoring systems.
Keywords: TOF, ESRI global landcover, MOLUSCE, GIS, Ghana
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kyenkyehene Kusi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kwadwo Kyenkyehene Kusi, Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Kumasi, Ghana
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