Forest area in Ghana 2008-2021

In 2021, Ghana had a forest area of nearly 80 thousand square kilometers. This represented roughly 35 percent of the country’s total land area. The total extent had expanded since 2016, when it stood at approximately 79.2 square kilometers. In contrast, between 2008 and 2015, the forest stretch followed a contracting trend. A forest area refers to land under natural or planted stands of trees of a minimum of five meters in situ, excluding trees in urban parks and gardens.

Annually decreasing forest land

In spite of the large tree extent in Ghana, the latter experiences constant forest and tree cover losses. In 2021, around 10.4 thousand hectares of primary forest were lost in the country, which was the highest area of forest lost since 2001. The primary cause of tree cover loss in Ghana is shifting agriculture, which usually emanates from small- and medium-scale agricultural activities. In 2019, over 80 thousand hectares of tree cover were lost from shifting agriculture.

Ghana benefits from forestry

Forest rents covered nearly four percent of Ghana’s GDP in 2020. This represented a slight growth in the contribution of forestry to the country’s economy. Specifically, the forestry and logging industry contributed over 1.8 million Ghanaian cedis, equivalent of 231 million U.S. dollars, to Ghana’s GDP in 2020.