Atewa Range
The Atewa Range (also called Atiwa-Atwaredu ranges ) is a range of hills in the East Akim District of the Eastern Region of southeastern Ghana . To the southwest of this is the Kwahu Plateau , which in turn borders the Volta Reservoir .
The steep hills with flattened peaks run roughly in a north-south direction. They are remnants of a peneplain (or "fuselage") from the Tertiary period that formerly covered southern Ghana and has bauxite deposits. There is an important forest reserve in the Atewa Range and this is where the three larger rivers Birim , Densu and Ayersu have their source .
Forest reserve
A large part of the area has been declared a forest protection area, including 17,400 hectares of high altitude, evergreen forest, which is very rare in Ghana. The reserve is managed by the Okyeman Environment Foundation, which has restricted agriculture there and is trying to alternatively strengthen ecotourism in this area. However, the reserve is threatened by bushmeat hunting and logging. It could also be threatened by raw material exploration in the future, since gold and bauxite are found here.
A number of plant species are only found here in Ghana, and there are also various species of birds that are extremely rare in the rest of Ghana. An expedition that examined the area in 2006 also discovered rare and possibly threatened primate species : the Geoffroy colobus monkey (Colobus velleros) and the green colobus monkey (Procolobus verus) as well as 17 rare butterfly species including Papilio antimachus , which has the widest wing span of all butterflies in the world and the Mylothris atewa , which is endangered worldwide.
Individual evidence
- ^ Eco - Fest Foundation at Atewa Range , Biodiversity Reporting Award. June 2001. Archived from the original on December 13, 2010 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 20, 2009.
- ↑ Study of Pristine Ghanaian Forest reveals new, rare and threatened species . Wildlife Extra. December 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
- ^ Atewa Range Forest Reserve . BirdLife International. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
- ↑ Scientists find many rare species in Ghana forest , Xi'an Jiaotong University. December 11, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
Web links
- Jennifer McCullough, Leeanne E. Alonso, Piotr Naskrecki, Heather E. Wright and Yaw Osei-Owusu: A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Eastern Ghana . Conservation International Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. 2007. ISBN 978-1-934151-09-9 . Retrieved March 20, 2009.