Literature review of wetlands in the Western Region

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2.3 Literature review of wetlands in the Western Region

The Western Region of Ghana has an area of about 21,391 km 2 estimating to about 10 of the total land area of Ghana with a 202 km coastline. The Western Coastline is made up of six districts which cover approximately 203 km. The coastal habitats of the Region are of various types. These include sandy beaches, lagoons and estuaries, mangroves and inland wetlands. Despite their importance in sustaining the flows of environmental goods and services, they face a variety of threats. Review of literature done by deGraft-Johnson et al. 2010 documents the following as the major threats to the survival and management of coastal water bodies in the Western Region include:  Overexploitation of marine fisheries resources due to overcapitalization of the fishing industry, use of small mesh nets in the beach seine fishery and other illegal fishing methods  Loss of coastal habitat through establishment of monocrop plantations, destruction of wetlands for infrastructure development, solid waste disposal, harvest of mangrove forests, beach sand mining and tourism development  Pollution of the marine and coastal environment from domestic and industrial solid waste, siltation, sewage disposal, mining waste, pesticides and fertilizers  By-catch of endangered species like seabirds, sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and manatees from the use of nonselective gears in the fishing industry  Accelerated coastal erosion from deforestation, sand and stone winning, and infrastructure development as the Takoradi Port and the nearby fishing harbor  Increasing population density which could bring about an increase in the rate of exploitation of resources of fragile ecosystems  Weak governance, legislation and institutional framework due to the fragmented nature of environmental legislation and lack of political will to enforce legislation  Development of oil and gas resources which has the potential to increase conflicts with the fishing industry over the use of marine space, and its potential negative impacts on coastal and marine habitats 21  Climate change and sea level rise which has the potential to severely impact the shoreline and further weaken the resilience of coastal habitats and biodivervsity and human communities  Spread of invasive species such as the Water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes in the wetlands and blooms of the green alga Enteromorpha flexuosa in the marine coastal waters could significantly hamper fishing activities and affect the livelihoods of coastal communities. Relevant national wetland policies and programmes have been outlined in Appendix 10. 22

3. METHODOLOGY