Country Area - 238,540 km²
Range Area - 15,181 km² (6%)
Protected Range - 47%
Information Quality Index (IQI) - 0.37
CITES Appendix - I
Listing Year - 1990
Ghana has a small number of elephant populations in savanna and forest habitats. As a result of habitat fragmentation and human population density, elephants are becoming increasingly restricted to protected areas. A new approach to anti-poaching in Ghana’s protected areas was introduced in 2004. This focused on adaptive management and patrol management, as well as increasing ranger numbers in some areas, and had the effect of reducing poaching levels (Jachmann, 2008).
Several studies have been carried out on crop raiding by elephants on the periphery of the Kakum Conservation Area. These have shown the efficacy of pepper-grease fences (Wiafe & Sam, 2014) and also that elephants damage oil palms less than plantain, cocoa and cassava (Dakwa et al., 2016).
A survey of retail outlets selling ivory in Accra in 2010 found very few items, attributed to a clampdown by the authorities in November 2008 on the main curio market, where several hundred kilos of ivory items were confiscated and dealers were fined and imprisoned (Martin, 2010).
Some of Ghana’s most important elephant areas have not been surveyed in many years, leading to a degradation of many estimates, and one population is now recorded as lost.
Ghana’s national elephant conservation strategy was published in 2000 (Wildlife Division, 2000).
The estimated number of elephants in areas surveyed in the last ten years in Ghana is 994 ± 67 at the time of the last survey for each area. There may be an additional 238 to 288 elephants in areas not systematically surveyed. These guesses likely represent a minimum number, and actual numbers could be higher than those reported. Together, this estimate and guess apply to 7,609 km², which is 50% of the estimated known and possible elephant range. There remains an additional 50% of the range for which no population estimates are available.
There has been little change recorded in elephant numbers since the publication of the AESR 2007. This is because most populations have not been recently surveyed, and there has been little change in those that have been surveyed.
The main forest populations are in Bia National Park and Conservation Area, Goaso Forest Reserves Complex, Dadieso Forest Reserve, Ankasa Conservation Area and Kakum Conservation Area, with Mole and Digya National Parks holding the only surviving savanna populations.
Dung counts of Bia NP and Resource Reserve were carried out in 2007 and 2009, giving estimates of 135 (114-156) elephants in 2007 (Danquah et al., 2009), and 146 (98-172) elephants in 2009 (Danquah & Oppong, 2014). The latter replaces an estimate of 115 ± 29 from 2004 (Sam et al., 2006) reported in the AESR 2007. This population is now considered to be isolated within the protected area (Danquah & Oppong, 2013) and surrounding areas of possible range have been removed from the map. However, improved protection allowed elephants to expand their range within Bia NP from 2007 (Danquah, 2009).
There are other forested areas to the north and east of Bia known as the Goaso Forest Reserves Complex. The Goaso elephant population has suffered major declines in both numbers and range, and is currently confined to a few of the reserves in the northern portion of the block. A dung count carried out in 2009 gave an estimate of 90 ± 41 (Danquah et al., 2009). This replaces an estimate of 72 from 2004 (Sam, 2004). The area of known range has been reduced (Danquah & Oppong, 2013).
There have been no new surveys in the Dadieso Forest Reserve to the south of Bia, and therefore the informed guess of seven from 2002 (Ayesu, 2003) has been retained from the AESR 2007 but is now degraded. The range has been changed to possible range.
The Ankasa Conservation Area is further south, close to the coast. A dung count carried out in 2009 gave an estimate of 56 (31-81) (Danquah, 2009). This replaces an estimate of 21 for 2001 (Danquah et al., 2001).
No new surveys have been carried out in the Kakum Conservation Area, so the estimate of 164 ± 36 from 2004 (Danquah, 2004) has been retained, but degraded to a guess, as the estimate is more than ten years old. An acoustic survey of Kakum CA was carried out in 2000, but the results were not published until 2010 (Thompson et al., 2010). This study estimated 294 elephants (259–329), and an extended acoustic model, estimating the frequency with which elephants are silent when present, yielded an estimate of 350 elephants (315–384).
Digya National Park and the Chichibon Corridor are in a forest-savanna mosaic. No recent surveys have been carried out in Digya NP so the estimate of 357 ± 54 from 2006 has been retained (Kumordzi & Danquah, 2007). Crop-raiding by elephants is still a problem in the Chichibon Corridor (Nutsuakor et al., 2015) and the old guess of 12-15 (Sam & Wilson, 1994) from 1994 has been retained.
An aerial survey of northern Ghana in 2006 showed no signs of elephants in the Red and White Volta areas (Bouché, 2007b), so this area has been changed to doubtful range and the population is recorded as a population lost. Other areas in the north-west have no recent records and have been downgraded to possible range.
No new counts have been carried out in Mole National Park, in the northern savanna zone, so the estimate of 401 from an aerial total count in 2006 (Bouché, 2006) has been retained.