Ghana's permanent forest estate includes a productive area of 760,000 hectares which is managed by the Forestry Department under a selection logging system. The Department's management system requires a pre-harvest stock survey at the compartment level (128 hectares) during which all commercially exploitable trees with a diameter of 50 centimetres or more are measured, numbered and mapped. An interim yield formula is then applied to the survey information in order to identify those trees that will constitute the permitted harvest for the compartment.

A review and analysis of Permanent Sample Plot (PSP) data carried out under the DFID Forest Inventory and Management Project confirmed that the interim yield formula was allowing harvesting at unsustainable levels but was not able to provide an alternative. The PSP programme has just begun second cycle enumeration, it will therefore be 5-10 years before comprehensive data is available. The proposed research is intended to place treatment of the forest on a sounder basis in the meantime.

To improve understanding of the relationship between harvesting intensity and mortality and regeneration of high forests of Ghana, and to prepare practical recommendations on appropriate harvesting initiatives and methods.

• Current state of knowledge and research reviewed.
• Impact of harvesting on forest mortality and regeneration analysed.
• Recommendations for forest management practice prepared.
• Information disseminated.