Impacts of land use and land cover change on forest integrity in Bobiri Reserve, Ghana

• Land use and land cover change drives deforestation and forest degradation in Bobiri Forest Reserve. • Spatiotemporal analysis (1986–2024) reveals 9.3% deforestation of closed forest cover. • Logging reduced ecological species metrics: richness, diversity, biomass, carbon, and seed trees also declined confirming forest degradation. • Forest degradation caused 37% decline in biomass and carbon stock based on allometric evaluation. • Urgent interventions needed to restore biodiversity and ecosystem resilience in Ghanaian forest reserves and the tropics. • Forest restoration is therefore vital to restore biodiversity, ecosystems, and carbon storage, to reduce climate change impacts. Land use and land cover changes (LULCC) are major drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, posing significant threats to protected forests and their ecosystem services. However, the impact of LULCC in the Bobiri Forest Reserve remains understudied, with limited evidence of the ecological consequences for the forest. In this study, we investigated (i) the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land cover in the reserve; (ii) the effects of these changes on species ecological metrics; and (iii) the implications of these changes for the retention of tree seed sources. We applied remote sensing and spatiotemporal analysis to a 38-year dataset (1986–2024), using Landsat 5 TM (1986), Landsat 7 ETM+ (2008), and Sentinel-2 L2A (2024) imagery to quantify LULCC. Our results revealed a deforestation rate of 9.30% between 1986 and 2024, with closed forest consistently transformed into open forest, cropland, and settlements or roads. Evaluation of forest degradation using tree inventory data from eight 1-hectare permanent sample plots (censused in 1990 and re-censused in 2022) showed a 37% decline in biomass and carbon stock. Logging-induced degradation significantly reduced species diversity, species richness, seed tree populations and canopy structure, including the loss of 2,496 trees across six species families. Normality of paired differences was assessed using the Shapiro–Wilk test and Q–Q plots, and effects were analysed using paired t-tests (p < 0.05). The impacts of LULCC on the Bobiri Forest Reserve have critical implications for biodiversity conservation, forest carbon dynamics, and natural regeneration. We conclude that urgent interventions are needed to curb unsustainable LULCC and to promote restoration strategies that safeguard the reserve’s ecological resilience, with action required from all policymakers.