People's relationships with trees reflect the landscape histories associated with distinctive forms of political and religious authority and the moral imaginings of people in Nangodi and its environs in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Their memories of particular trees serve as historical evidence of overlapping yet specific forms of political authority exercised by chiefs, earth priests, past colonial officers, and present-day Ghanaian government officials. In Nangodi, individual family ancestral tree shrines, clan tree cemeteries, and sacred groves associated with earth priests and chiefs coexist with the Red Volta West Forest Reserve and with a succession of tree-related development initiatives. While these relationships are often considered as separate claims to political authority, spiritual power, or scientific knowledge, this paper argues that these relationships of people and of trees are better conceptualized as historical accumulations that represent intersecting and contested forms of authority and political rule continuing into the present. Indigenous tree species such as ebony are associated with sacred groves controlled by chiefs, silk-cotton trees with earth priests’ cemeteries, and baobab trees with particular families coexist with foreign teak trees associated with colonial forestry. This situation suggests how institutions of governance as well as the actions of individuals have environmental consequences. A consideration of historical memories of people and trees in places such as Nangodi enables a rethinking of political and environmental dichotomies, and complicates the social dynamics of` the preservation and destruction of trees and forests around the world.

Conversion of forest to other land uses is a major contributor to climate change. The coastal forests of Tanzania have increasingly been recognized as being of global biodiversity importance, due to high rates of species endemism. Rates of forest loss are similar to those of other tropical regions, resulting in increasing levels of threat for the biological values within the remaining forest and potentially significant source of CO2 emissions. This study estimated the remaining cover and carbon stock of Tanzania's coastal forests and the CO2 emissions due to forest loss between c. 1990 and c. 2007. Coastal Tanzania contained over 273 700 ha of forest in 2007. Deforestation rates in the area have slowed from 1.0% yr−1, or > 3735 ha yr−1 during the 1990s, to 0.4% yr−1, or > 1233 ha yr−1 during 2000–2007. Despite lower deforestation rates in 2000–2007, the percentage forest lost from within reserved areas has remained steady at 0.2% yr−1 for both time periods. CO2 emissions from deforestation slowed from at least 0.63 Mt CO2 yr−1 in 1990–2000 to at least 0.20 Mt CO2 yr−1 in 2000–2007. Regional forest clearance in Tanzania is highly dynamic; while rates have slowed since 2000, forest habitat conversion has continued and there is no guarantee that future rates will remain low. A rigorous policy on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) should be implemented to avoid future increases in deforestation rates.

The protected area network of Africa has grown from nothing to over 2 million km2 in the past 110 years. This network covers parts of all biomes and priority areas for biodiversity conservation but protected area gaps remain, as identified at the 5th World Parks Congress in 2003. Forest reserves, managed by Forest Departments, are typically excluded from global protected area lists, but in Africa they are found in 23 countries and cover at least 549,788 km2, adding 25% to the conservation estate. Forest reserves protect 5.3% (2,027 km2) of the dry forest habitats, 5% (165,285 km2) of lowland and montane moist forests, 2.6% (364,354 km2) of savannah woodlands, 1.8% (10,561 km2) of flooded grasslands, and 1.65% (1,177 km2) of mangroves. Forest reserves also protect parts of three conservation schemes: 6.5% (61,630 km2) of BirdLife's Endemic Bird Areas, 3.4% (147,718 km2) of Conservation International's Hotpots and 3.4% (346,864 km2) of WWF's Global 200 Ecoregions. Several of the global protected area gaps identified in Africa are also covered by forest reserves, in the Eastern Arc Mountains, Eastern African coastal forests, Kenyan Highlands, Cameroon-Nigerian Mountains, West African Forests and mountain areas of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia. Some African forest reserves have a legally defined role in biodiversity conservation and are strictly protected; they thus fit criteria for protected areas. Working with forest departments in individual countries may help develop a more comprehensive protected area network without creating additional new reserves.

The establishment of protected areas for wildlife conservation in Africa was motivated by a number of different reasons (including hunting, recreation and wildlife conservation). The current reserve network provides good coverage of the distributions of the 194 species of larger mammals (>3 kg) and 51 species of threatened larger mammals. However, it is less effective in covering the distribution of all 197 of Africa's threatened mammal species, which includes >140 smaller bodied species (<3 kg) often restricted to habitat patches. A fully comprehensive network of areas for the conservation of African mammals, especially those facing extinction, is not yet in place, and further reserves may be needed in the Horn of Africa (Somalia in particular), the Cameroon Highlands, parts of the eastern African coastal forests and Eastern Arc Mountains, and parts of the Albertine Rift Mountains. More and larger reserve areas are also required to adequately cover all the species of South Africa. Parts of these gaps are already covered by government forest reserves, and the importance of this reserve category for the conservation of African mammals, especially threatened species, needs to be better recognized. As many of the gaps in reserve coverage are in areas of high human population and good agricultural potential, conservation goals may be difficult to achieve unless we supplement traditional reserves with novel approaches to maintain natural habitats and wildlife outside reserves.