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Congratulations to SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana Executive Director Gilbert Adum for winning an award of £10,000 (US$15,500) from the Rufford Foundation. The award will enable Gilbert and his SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana team to upscale their habitat restoration project within the habitats of Ghana’s critically endangered Giant Squeaker Frog (Arthroleptis krokosua) for the species protection. They will specifically: (1) remove the invasive weed Chromolaena odorata from the species’ remaining degraded habitat; (2) establish community tree nurseries to raise and plant 5,000 native seedlings; (3) field map the spatial distribution of all planted seedlings; and (3) sustain education campaigns for the species’ long-term protection.
The Squeaker Frog is in immediate danger of extinction as only 13 individuals are known to exist (as of the writing of this article), all in an unprotected forest patch in Western Ghana’s Sui River Forest Reserve (SRFR). However, the combination of logging, farming, mining and the invasion of the non-native weed Chromolaena odorata are causing the species to decline and preventing its recovery from the brink of extinction. Within an area of 20 hectares, Gilbert and his team will remove the invasive C. odorata which impedes the frogs’ movement and replant fast-growing native trees, and launch an education program to increase conservation awareness among local people and the general public.
This project is an excellent opportunity to engage our collaborators, both local and international. The local awareness creation will especially be useful to generate more avenues for community engagement including instilling in the young generation a conservation spirit. We are also in dialogue with logging companies with concessions within the SRFR to delineate critical areas of the species from all logging activities.
Thanks to the Rufford Foundation for funding this project!
