West African Forests

Our work in Africa commenced in 2011 and is currently focused in two countries, Ghana (West Africa) and Gabon (Atlantic Central Africa). We have strong collaborative partnerships with the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN) in Ghana and Gabon, respectively.

These countries were selected as contrasting samples of the West African (Guinean) and Congo Basin forests and we have three study sites in Ghana and three sites in Gabon. We are currently in the process of establishing multiple intensive carbon monitoring plots at each of the sites, with 14 in Ghana and 6 in Gabon. In both countries, our sites encompass contrasting wet and dry plots as well as a logging chronosequence, including six plots in Ghana located within a logging concession site that will be monitored through the logging process.

These 21 intensive research plots in Africa follow the RAINFOR protocol and will complement our ongoing 17 sites across Amazonia that are part of the RAINFOR forest inventory network. This research will help to address hypotheses on carbon production, respiration and allocation in tropical forests, while generating a powerful simultaneous multi-site comparison using a uniform methodology between African, Amazonian and Asian tropical forests.
.