Ghana

Deforestation of undisturbed Tropical Moist Forest derived from EC JRC Tropical Moist Forest dataset (Vancutsem et al., 2021). Note that values for the most recent 2 years may change in the future when new versions of the Tropical Moist Forest dataset are released, updated to reflect whether recent forest change shows temporary degradation or permanent deforestation.

Deforestation maps were derived from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre 's TMF dataset Version 1 from 2023 (Vancutsem et al., 2021) using 41 years of Landsat time series at 30 metre spatial resolution and aggregated at department level. Deforestation refers to the year of change in land cover, from undisturbed or degraded forest (see above) to non-forest (Vancutsem et al., 2021).

Ghana - Deforestation

Degradation of Tropical Moist Forest derived from EC JRC Tropical Moist Forest dataset (Vancutsem et al., 2021). Note that values for the most recent 2 years may change in the future when new versions of the Tropical Moist Forest dataset are released, updated to reflect whether recent forest change shows temporary degradation or permanent deforestation.

Maps of degraded forest were derived from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre's TMF dataset Version 1 from 2023  (Vancutsem et al., 2021) using 41 years of Landsat time series at 30 metre spatial resolution and aggregated at department level. Forest degradation was defined as a disturbance in the tree cover canopy  visible from space over a short time period (< 2.5 years). A 'forest degradation' pixel remains forested land; i.e.,  covered by existing or regrowing trees, whereas a 'deforestation' pixel leads to the long-term (visible > 2.5 years) conversion into non-forested land  (Vancutsem et al., 2021).

Ghana - Degradation

Gross CO₂-eq. emissions from deforestation, estimated from the loss of above- and below-ground biomass (excluding soil carbon) from the EC JRC Tropical Moist Forest dataset (Vancutsem et al., 2021). Carbon stocks were converted to CO₂-eq. by multiplying by 3.67. Note that values for the most recent 2 years may change in the future when new versions of the Tropical Moist Forest dataset are released, updated to reflect whether recent forest change shows temporary degradation or permanent deforestation.

Gross (greenhouse gas) emissions from territorial deforestation (tonnes of CO2-eq) were calculated by estimating the maximum CO2-eq potentially emitted due to the full removal of the biomass as a result of territorial deforestation, estimated in a given year. This metric is calculated by multiplying the area of territorial deforestation by an estimate of the carbon stock contained in each hectare of converted land. Carbon stocks represent the total carbon stored in above- and below-ground biomass, but does not include carbon stocks in the soil. We create local estimates of biomass density (carbon stocks per hectare) using data from (Soto-Navarro et al., 2020). Carbon is converted into CO₂-eq emissions by multiplying by a factor of 44/12 ( or 3.67), based on the ratio between the molecular weight of C and CO₂ following (Pachauri et al., 2015).

Ghana - Gross greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation

Area of undisturbed Tropical Moist Forest derived from EC JRC Tropical Moist Forest dataset (Vancutsem et al., 2021). Note that values for the most recent 2 years may change in the future when new versions of the Tropical Moist Forest dataset are released, updated to reflect whether recent forest change shows temporary degradation or permanent deforestation.

Undisturbed forest maps were derived from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre's forest cover change in tropical moist forests (TMF) dataset Version 1 from 2023 (Vancutsem et al., 2021) using 41 years of Landsat time series at 30 metre spatial resolution and aggregated at department level. Undisturbed forest was defined as a closed evergreen or semi-evergreen forest without any disturbance observed over the full Landsat historical dataset (Vancutsem et al., 2021).

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