Land use and land cover changes implications on biodiversity in the Owabi catchment of Atwima Nwabiagya North District, Ghana

This paper examined land use and land cover (LULC) change and implications to biodiversity in the Owabi catchment of Atwima Nwabiagya North District in Ghana from 1991 to 2021 using remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS), with participatory methods such as interviews and questionnaires with a sample size of 200 participants. The use of supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm in QGIS was employed to generate LULC maps of 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021. Molusce Plugin in QGIS was applied to predict probabilities of LULC changes in 10 years (2021-2031). The results showed that high-density forest has disappeared from 1991 to 2021 while built-up has increased and remained the most dominant LULC from 2011 to 2021. There is a continual decline in the number of plant and animal species in and around the Owabi catchment. This can be attributed to the decline of high-density forests and increased built-up in the study area through human actions. The study identified the influence of human activities as the key forces of LULC change to biodiversity loss. This problem stemmed from the taste for housing and trading activities in the Kumasi Metropolitan Area which has resulted in an increasing demand for settlement because of its closeness to Kumasi and its environs. The study recommends that stringent preventive measures should be developed and enforced by various stakeholders including the Forestry Commission, Ghana Water Company Limited, Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the District/Municipal Assemblies to safeguard the forest from human activities. This recommendation will help these agencies to keep abreast with changes in LULC in the various communities and factors such as changes during the planning of the communities.