Land use conflicts are becoming increasingly apparent from local to global scales. Surface gold mining is an extreme source of such a conflict, but mining impacts on local livelihoods often remain unclear. Our goal here was to assess land cover change due to gold surface mining in Western Ghana, one of the world's leading gold mining regions, and to study how these changes affected land use systems. We used Landsat satellite images from 1986-2002 to map land cover change and field interviews with farmers to understand the livelihood implications of mining-related land cover change. Our results showed that surface mining resulted in deforestation (58%), a substantial loss of farmland (45%) within mining concessions, and widespread spill-over effects as relocated farmers expand farmland into forests. This points to rapidly eroding livelihood foundations, suggesting that the environmental and social costs of Ghana's gold boom may be much higher than previously thought.

No abstract

The result of correlation analysis between tree-ring growth and climate is the key indicator in dendroclimatic investigations. Combinations of different climate datasets with different tree-ring parameters of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey.), give different correlation results. Samples for this study were collected in spruce forests of northern Tian Shan in the southeastern part of Kazakhstan. Several combinations of monthly, daily, gridded and station climate data with earlywood (EW), latewood (LW), total ring width (TRW) of young, old and mixed (old and young) trees were checked. EW showed the best correlations with precipitation, LW with temperature and TRW with Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Correlation analysis indicates that daily climate data in combination with EW and LW provide best results. Strongest correlation with precipitation was found for EW of old trees, for the period July 6 th-November 3 rd (previous year), r = 0.64 (p<0.05). LW of agemixed trees showed correlation with temperature of current year. Strongest correlations: with average temperature, for the period June 11 th-August 4 th , r =-0.67; with maximum temperature, for the period June 25 th-July 17 th , r =-0.66 (p<0.05) and with minimum temperature for the period June 11 th-August 4 th , r =-0.64 (p<0.05). TRW of young trees showed the strongest correlation with the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index 12, for June of current year, r = 0.61 (p<0.05). Finally a shifting of strongest correlation between EW of mixed trees and precipitation was found. The strongest correlations with gridded data were found in previous July and with station data in previous October. This study provides new information for understanding the relationships between tree-ring growth and climate in the Trans-Ili Alatau.

Abstract. Ground temperature measurements have been carried out at eleven different sites of the Prokhodnaja valley in the high mountains of the Zailijskij Alatau (Northern Tian Shan, Kazakhstan) between the summers of 2003 and 2004. For this purpose the periglacial zone and adjacent altitudinal zones have been examined between 2,500 and 4,000 m asl with an equidistance of 250 m. The influences of the altitude, the exposure as well as the depth below the earth’s surface on the thermal content and condition of periglacial soils have been considered. The measurements provide useful information about the relations between quantity and quality of freeze-thaw action and the parameters mentioned above.

No abstract