Community structure of small mammals in an upland evergreen forest

Team:

Prof. Alexandra-Maria Klein (Univ. Freiburg)

Prof. Dr. Nina Farwig

Dr. Anne-Christine Mupepele

PhD student Eric Adjei Lawer

Project duration:

2017 - 2021

Funding:

Anthropogenic activities such as logging and mining play important roles in the economies of many countries worldwide. However, the benefits derived come at a detrimental cost to ecological integrity of forest systems. The impacts are often severe in developing countries where logging and mining occur pervasively and illegally especially in protected forest areas. Traditional methods of mining, i.e. without the use of heavy machinery or equipment (e.g. excavators) are still practiced in some parts of the world. This method of mining referred to as ‘galamsey’ in Ghana is purported to cause less damage to the vegetation by removing less flora compared to commercial mining. Nevertheless, not much work has been done to assess its impacts along with artisanal logging on fauna assemblages in tropical forests.