The tropical forest plays vital role in the global carbon cycle and climate system. It is home to about half the species of the world; hence their continual loss would create large and potentially irreversible loss of biodiversity. Forest degradation and deforestation are said to account for between 20 to 25% of global green house gas (GHG) emissions with CO2 forming a greater percentage. Consequently, countries worldwide are trying to develop several measures to mitigate global atmospheric carbon increase.
Ghana heavily depends on timber for economic growth and development. Though Ghana practices selective logging system, which involves felling of few trees per hectare, several trees are destroyed with the soil being also exposed due to the use of heavy machinery for extraction. There is therefore the urgent need to understand the recovery rate and carbon cycling mechanism, in order to develop methods to quantify and monitor the carbon stock of our tropical natural forest and also to develop management tools to hasten recovery while ensuring that biodiversity is maintained.