Ransford Agyei
Other projects
14 Feb 2019
Conservation of Hippopotamus in Bui National Park, Ghana; Participatory Stakeholder Approach
24 Sep 2020
Strengthening Community-Based Hippo Conservation along the Black Volta River; the Case of Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary
The aim of this project is to ensure the long-term sustainability of Hippos in Ghana. Specifically, the project aims to:
i) determine the national population status of Hippos in Ghana,
ii) significantly reduce Human-Hippo conflicts and
iii) raise conservation awareness on the plight of Hippos in Ghana.
Hippo populations in Ghana are at the highest risks level due to fragmented distribution, unregulated hunting and high frequency of Human-hippo conflicts (Lewison & Pluháček, 2017). The need for direct conservation action to protect Hippos from further exploitation have been identified as priority by IUCN. However, baseline information required to make concrete actionable decisions for Hippo conservation and management are woefully inadequate.
In order to address this key conservation challenge, there is the need to undertake nationwide census on Hippos, document its threats and raise the necessary conservation awareness for its sustainability. Our previous work on Hippos have surveyed Bui Conservation Area and Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary. This current project will focus on other potential habitats as reported by Lewison & Pluháček, (2017) including Mole National Park, Digya National Park and other gallery forests. It is anticipated that, this project will generate relevant data for the conservation management of remnant Hippo populations in Ghana.