Production pressure and environmental change in the forest-savanna zone of Southern Ghana,

This study confirms the view that changes in the biophysical environment are significantly related to production pressure. The scattered concentrations of forest species in Ghanaʹs forest-savanna zone evidently are relics of a dominant natural forest. Deforestation has entailed environmental quality deterioration, including biodiversity loss, and impoverishment of the soils. Farmers try to counter environmental change by modifying cropping and intensifying production, but without much success because of poverty and tenurial and technological constraints. Associated with population and market pressures for production, the change calls for greater attention to sustainable small farmer environmental management systems.