CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL NONTIMBER FOREST PRODUCT 2 STUDY WILDLIFE SPECIALIST REPORTS: 3 BIRDS, SMALL MAMMALS, ELEPHANTS CLIPPINGS: 4 NEWS AND UPDATES 6 UPDATES Jerry Punguse. Chief Officer of the .Ghana Department of Wildlife. on the canopy walkway at Kakum National Park. II • N° 1 July Volwne , 1995 IfMOIIf ~'Nt;C documents activities in and around Kakum National Park, Ghana, associated with Conservation International's component of the US AID-funded Natural Resource Conservation and Historic Preservation Project. AFRICA'S FIRST was conducted by Irene Manley. Company showed its support for the Since its opening to the public on walkway by donating expedition CANOPY W ALKWAY April 22, the walkway has attracted clothing to the construction crew, and 5,880 tourists and generated over both British Airways and Continen­ Debra Sohm I7y $270 a week. It is estimated that at tal Airlines donated cargo space. he only canopy walkway on the the current level of fees and visitation The official opening on Earth Day T African continent was completed in the walkway will produce an annual was attended by Ministers of the Kakum National Park on March 4th of revenue of over $14,000. Ghanaian government, the US am­ this year. Designed for. use by both tour­ The walkway is the product of ex­ bassador, and the director of US AID/ ists and researchers, the 3 SO-meter bridge tensive collaboration between the Ghana., This event attracted substan­ connects seven treetops in the Kakum designer and the builders. Dr. mar tial media attention, including a Forest via. a system constructed of rope, Muul designed the walkway and chose Ghana Broadcasting Corporation ladders, wooden planks and'safety net­ the·site. The leaders of the construc­ story that was also aired as part oi ting. Bird watchers and entomologists tion team, J~hn Kelson and Tom CNN's World Report. C ..traversing the span have sighted species Ainsworth, took ~e plans for the that are difficult or rare to see at ground walkway and adapted them to Kakum. The chart on page 5 details the dra­ level. The first research on the walkway, They were as'sisted by Ghanaian car­ matic increase in visitors to Kahtm. focussing on dung beetles in the canopy, penters and climbers. The Patagonia NONTIMBER FOR 'ST P RODUCT STUDY by Brent Bailey ontimber Forest Produ .s and Conservation: An Ass sment from the Kakum Conservatic Area, Ghana was submitted to the ]SAID Ghana Mission in April. B sed on field work conducted during he first part of 1994, the study asse ses the j ~xtentand value of Nontimbe··Forest Products (NTFPs) through in rviews. ] with SOO households. Resu .s from the study will be used to sha e man­ ! agement practices in Kakum and en­ hance the park's village outre ch pro- grams. A team of 8 Ghanaians from uni­ side of the F rk. versities in Cape Coast and Legon worked with project director Brent Virtu all. all farmers complain of lating climate and rainfall. and its Bailey to develop questionnaires, 10- crop dama e by animals, but those importance as a source of drink~ng with small acreages are at greater .cate villages surrounding the 'park, wat~~, villagers feel the park pro­ and meet with village elders to obtain risk of fo od insufficiencies when vides them with benefits. Further­ permission to conduct surveys in their raided by animals. Compounding more, many hope that Kakum's de­ communities. During a two-month their frustr ;. tion of crop loss is a ban velopment as a tourist destination will period, the team worked from dawn on trapping animals on their farms, stimulate local. economies and bring to dark, often following foot path.. or hunt~ng vithin two kilometers of revenues to the local level. between villages, and at times fording the park boundary. The establishment The report concludes with a brief rain-swollen streams to reach remote of Kakum, and its ban on huntJng, section of recommendations based on. communities. appears to have benefitted previousl y respondents! concerns. Some are al­ Interviews yielded valuable infor­ overhunted wildlife populations. But ready being implemented by the park: mation about the composition of lo­ the wildlife rebound has spilled over staff and Conservation International. onto adjacent agricultural lands, and cal villages. Over SO percent of the Village-based rearing of grasscutters, heads of households are not from the creaJed difficulties for local residents. an abundant rodent highly prized for As the human population grows its meat, is being tested in two of the villages iii which they live, th01~gh and forested areas outside the reserve local villages. A tourism plan that mos~ come from the Central Region, where·Kakum is located. Attracted to decrease, Kakum increases in impor­ defines the involvement ofvillages in the Kakum area to farm cocoa, most tance as a source ofNTFPs including the tourism trade is under develop­ bushmeat. Raphia palm fron~s for ment. And creation of additional visi­ ".!lon-native" resident~ send money back to their homes, and hope one roof thatch, cane for basket weaving, tors facilities in key villages is being day to return to their villages of ori­ and others. Many of these products considered. gm. This transfer of investment prof­ could be sold to generate extra house­ . Ultimately, Kakum's success will its out of the Kakum area limits the hold income. But they also frequently rely on strategies that generate rev­ success of community-based invest­ are used or consumed by households, .enue for effective management, share ment in schools and other village de­ eliminating the need to purchase these benefits wjth local communities, and velopment. goods in markets. Seventy-eight per­ reduce pressures on park resources. Until its esta11lishment as a park, cent of households report that since The report advocates broad-based col­ Kakum was a forest reserve for over park establishment, they had begun laboration among development and to purchase goods which previously SO years. Outside the reserve, large natural resource agencies active in were available for "free" from the patches of forest were· gradually th~ Kakum vicinity to support biodi­ cleared, spurred by competition {or forest. Thus their cash needs have versity conservation and tourism, a land for cultivation of cocoa, oil palm, increased, while cash-earning oppor­ strong vittage-outreach program for citrus, and other cash crops. In 1994, tunities have decreased. the park, and adoption of a long­ Despite these difficulties. howev'er, farms around the park averaged ten range goal of fore~t growth for the acres in size; almost .a third worked many villagers see value in the park. region outside the boundaries of Citing the role of the forest in regu- Kakum. D 2 from 116 bird species have been made. 'n order to develop 1 planned .:rop , WILDLIFE This d~ta represents a core of record­ barrier. ings from which the final cuts for the Nchanji observed that many of the SPECIALIST Kakum sound track-will be 'chosen. crops are destroyed near maturity and The sound track will be produced by recommended a study on crop harvest R EPORTS the Library of Natural Sounds at and a storage program. Other recom­ Cornell University. and distributed mendations include further study of through the Ghana Wildlife Depart­ land tenure, the introduction of agro­ BIRD SURVEY W ORK ment an.d Conservation International. forestry techniques, and experimen­ David C. Mayer It should be available next year. Some tation with chemical deterrents cur­ of the bird recordings have already rently being useo elsewhere in Af­ In late Apri11994, I began an eight­ been used in the production of a song rica. C month bird survey to produce a check­ about the destruction of.rainforests list of the birds of Kakum National in Ghana. Anthony Nchanji is with the Wi/d­ Park and Assin Attandanso Resource . One of the key components of the life Conservation Society - Cameroon Reserve. training program is to build the ca­ Biodiversity Project. About 275 bird species have been pacity of junior staff to lead bird tour reported from Kakum (179 con­ groups in Kakum. Many of the junior staff already have a detaiied knowi­ firmed), with an additional 70 SMALL MAMMAL SURVEY "possibles." This brings the hypo­ edge of the local names, behavior, thetical list to a total of 345 species. and vocalizations of the fauna of W ORK The final bird lisnor Kakum will be Kakum. However, language remains Mari Oniland compiied into an annotated checklist a problem. Given the large time com- to be published as a supplement to , mitment for a comprehensive train- Professor Sam Yeboah completed Malimbus, the Journal of the West ing program in English, a different" a seven-month survey of small mam­ African Ornithological Society. This method W'as chosen. A key contain- - -mals and herpetofauna in December list will include a summary of the , ing the local Fanti or Twi name of of 1994. His report documents the status of aU birds recorded from , birds with a cross-reference to the capture of 178 individuals represent­ Kakum National Park and ' Assin English, French, and German names ing 16 species of small terrestrial Attandanso Resource Reserve, as well 'will be produced. These will be used mammals and sightings of small as sections on where to find birds and for training park staff and to help mammals, amphibia and reptiles. tips for birders. , tourists find names in their own lan- According to Dr. Yeboah's report, - Among the birds found in Kakum guages of birds identified by their the Obengkrom area is the richest in are two species that are vulnerable or guides.