Climate-Adjusted Tree Seed Sourcing for Forest Landscape Restoration in Ghana Dataset/Figures

1.   This archive contains a list of 20 tree species compiled from a 2022 survey on tree seed sourcing strategies in Ghana, complemented by relevant scientific literature and forest inventories conducted by Hawthorne and Abu-Juam (1995) and Oteng-Amoako (2006). The selected species were prioritised for their economic importance and their relevance to restoration initiatives across the country. Species presence data were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, 2024) and processed in R Studio 4.4.0 using the Dismo, Jsonlite, rgbif, bgifdb, and Raster packages (R Core Team, 2024). The presence (occurrence) records retrieved from GBIF between May and June 2024 were restricted to Ghana’s national boundary (xmin: -3.258473, xmax: 1.191527, ymin: 4.741527, ymax: 11.17486). This ensured that the dataset is geographically appropriate for habitat suitability modelling within Ghana. The dataset’s reliability is further supported by the validated geographic coordinates provided by GBIF, as species occurrence is highly dependent on location-specific accuracy (GBIF, 2024).  2.   The archive contains data on the availability of priority timber species for native tree seed sourcing and conservation, derived from habitat suitability maps developed for 20 species across Ghana. These maps were overlaid on 15 delineated seed transfer zones and 266 forest reserve boundaries. Each forest reserve was classified as either within or outside a specific seed transfer zone, and its suitability for the presence of each species was assessed. Within every seed transfer zone, the maps indicate whether each forest and wildlife reserve is suitable or unsuitable for the 20 studied species. For each species, a corresponding dataset has been compiled, detailing its presence or absence across the 266 forest reserves in Ghana. This study provides a useful framework for native tree seed sourcing and the conservation of 20 species in the context of increasing climate change.