4.2. Beach management and ecology
Beach management programmes in many developing nations
including Ghana have largely focused on protecting life and
property as well as enhancing the recreational and aesthetic value
of the beaches for tourism, with little or no attention given to beach
living organisms such as the ghost crabs. Such programmes have
caused severe impacts on the factors that support the survival of
many living organisms that use the beach environment as habitat,
nesting or spawning grounds in both developed and developing
countries (Nordstrom, 2005; Cartwright, 2014). This could lead to
a possible loss of coastal and marine organisms that depend on the
beach either as habitat or as spawning grounds (e.g. ghost crabs
and sea turtles).There is the need therefore, to reduce the negativeeffects of human activities and the impacts of beach management
programmes on beach living organisms.
Management interventions to issues of human use of beaches,
and regulation in Ghana have been reactive rather than strategic
(Boateng, 2006). Most often, beach management regulations seek
to control commercial activities such as sand mining, but regulation
on recreational use is less strict. The limited control on the
recreational use of beaches has led to ad hoc beach development
and siting of unapproved infrastructure for recreational purpose.
The unregulated recreational use of beaches and ‘‘ad hoc’’ infrastructure
development may cause ‘unacceptable’ changes to natural
systems and thus influencing negatively on ghost crabs and other
living organisms on the beach.
Apart from scavenging scraps and dead organisms on the beach,
ghost crabs contribute significantly to the ecological functioning of
the beach. Schlacher et al. (2011) identified a strong correlation
between higher ghost crab abundance at sites with higher
vegetation. It is assumed that the ghost crabs borrows facilitate
soil aeration and percolation and thus enhance the growth of
vegetation. Therefore, the reduction in ghost crab population
may affect beach vegetation. Vegetation is an important habitat
component for ghost crabs for reasons such as; plants provide more
shade, which protect the ghost crab from harsh physical conditions
caused by high temperature and high evaporation rates, and taller
vegetation may provide better camouflage from predators such as
birds and foxes. Furthermore, leaf litter from plants influences the
abundance and distribution of invertebrates in coastal dunes.
There is the need to pursue direct ecological beach management
policies and interventions to protect the ecosystems of recreational
beaches. Direct management of the ecological resources of beaches
is less prominent in developing countries such as Ghana. The authors
recommend that coastal authorities should develop plans
for recovery and protection of beach species and their habitats.
The following direct beach ecological management programmes
is therefore suggested; protection of birds nesting grounds on
beaches, creation of small pockets of sanctuary and habitats on
recreational beaches to protect ghost crabs and other beach organisms.
The size of a beach sanctuary will depend on the beach size
and the conservation needs. However, we assume that a minimum
of 100 m to a maximum of 1 km of undisturbed beach and adjoining
backshore maintained at various locations along the shoreline
depending on conservation needs can be useful. In addition, there
is the need to control the destruction of sand dunes and regulate
human activities, particularly, sand mining and other the ‘‘ad hoc’’
recreational infrastructure development along the coast.