SACRED GROVE AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life forms, measured in terms of biomes, ecosystems and species and genetic varieties and the interactions between them (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1995).
Conservation can also be defined as the protection of species and habitats, to preserve wildlife and wilderness (Byers, 1996). Within Sacred groves areas, genetic diversity is permitted to evolve in response to natural selection pressures. These genetic resources are a source of many new products. As well, they serve to protect major ecosystem services essential to us all (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2008).  

Sacred groves have high conservation and biodiversity values which have increased the attention paid to them as potential means for biodiversity conservation. Sacred groves are important today as they are reservoirs of genetic diversity that have to be preserved and sustained (Jonathan, 2008).  Sacred groves make a significant contribution to biodiversity conservation on a number of levels:                                                          

·       They contribute to the conservation of threatened forest ecosystems.

·       They also protect a large number of endemic or relic plant species. (Laird, 1999).   

In areas where the remnant forests have been cleared, sacred groves act as sanctuaries for indigenous flora and fauna.  They act as seed banks from which other areas are regenerated.  They serve as habitats for species important in agriculture such as pollinators, pest eaters and game animals. Floral biodiversity in sacred groves is very rich. Sacred groves not only yield several non-timber forest products, they also harbour multiple-use livelihood goods. (Pandey, 2006)

According to Ntiamoa-Baidu, (1995) the total number and area covered by sacred groves in Ghana is unknown, and the biodiversity of many groves has not been studied. There is, however, some evidence of their botanical value (Hall and Swaine, 1981 cited in Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1995) found the only surviving specimens of the inner zone subtype of the dry semi deciduous forest as well as the southern marginal forest types to be present in sacred groves. In many areas, sacred groves form the only remnant forest found in severely degraded forest lands and farmlands. However, sacred areas alone would have contributed very little to forest conservation. According to Hawthorne and Abu-Juam, (1995), there is no reason to believe that the higher incidence of deforestation in the early 1990s in Ghana would have stopped without the establishment of introduced strategy of conservation by the state. However the introduced form of reservation alienates villages from their forest.  Ntiamoa-Baidu, (1995) admitted that the small sizes of the groves make them far less important than the introduced protected area systems in terms of biodiversity conservation.

References

Byers, B. A. 1996.  Understanding and Influencing Behaviours in Conservation and Natural Resources Management. African Biodiversity Series No.4 Washington, D.C. Biodiversity Support Programme.

Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y. 1995. African Biodiversity Series, Indigenous vs. Introduced Biodiversity Conservation Strategies: The Case of Protected Area Systems. Produced by the Biodiversity Support Program Number 1.  

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2008); Protected Areas in Today’s World: Their Values and Benefits for the Welfare of the Planet. Montreal, Technical Series no. 36.

Hawthorne, W. D. and Abu-Juam, M. 1995.  IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, XVII+ 203pps.

Laird A. S. 1999.  Trees, Forests and Sacred groves. The Overstory #93,                                            agroforestry ejournal. [www.agroforestry.net/overstory/overstory#93] (Assessed 2009 October 28).

Pandey N. D. 1998. Sacred Forestry: The Case of Rajasthan, Sustainable Developments International. [www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITsacredforestry] (Assessed 2009 October 28).