According to the Ghana Forestry Commission, the nation has about 1,904 sacred groves ranging from 0.5 ? 1,300 hectares. Such groves fall under category 7 of the IUCN/UNESCO conservation areas. Some of these areas are important resources for conserving rare flora and fauna biodiversity and in some cases they remain the only samples of the original vegetation in the area, the rest having been lost to human activities.
Sacred groves are natural forests that serve as sacred burial grounds for the royals of the communities and have been preserved as such through strictly enforced taboos and cultural practices. They also provide the communities with medicinal plants, wild food plants, game and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and in some cases may protect some important water sources. Unfortunately, with changing attitudes and the introduction of Christianity many traditional religious norms and beliefs that were used for protecting these groves have been lost and so have most sacred groves been lost. Today, the threats to the sacred groves include deforestation, logging, bushfires, conversion into farmlands, and human settlements as well as mining.
Jachie Sacred Grove now 11.5 Ha but reported to be 256 Ha in the past and Kagyasi Sacred Grove (8 Ha) both occur within the peri-urban area of Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Kingdom. GACON worked closely with the communities to inventoried the plant and animal biodiversity in the groves and did an enrichment planting of forest tree species that occur in the region but not in the groves. They also established two 0.4 Ha nurseries and two demonstration plots for agroforestry and woodlots and taught the women the construction and use of FEW Stoves so as to reduce the threats to the groves. The Jachie community now has By-Laws to protect the grove under the Jachie Sacred Grove Management Committee. This grove is now an attraction for researchers and students and is growing into an ecotourism site. It has been sited as the best village level biodiversity conservation project by the Biodiversity Support Programme team of Washington and has been involved in the ? People Landuse and Environmental Change (PLEC) that was funded by GEF Large Grants.