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On the basis of a detailed case study of the High Forest Zone of Ghana, the paper challenges the common narrative of REDD as being fast and easy. The paper analyses proximate and underlying causes of deforestation and degradation and finds that these processes are driven by multiple underlying causes. The paper goes on to argue that the causes of deforestation and degradation that are found within the realm of the forestry sector, to which REDD measures will be largely confined, have emerged as a result of a political economy that gives priority to economic development over forest conservation, while at the same time allowing powerful interest groups, in particular the political and administrative elite, to financially benefit from resource depletion. The analysis suggests that forest conserving policy reforms are unlikely to come fast and easy, and that the prospect of future REDD payments may not accelerate them. It is argued that the case of Ghana is not unique and that REDD implementation may face similar constraints in many developing countries.

Although high on the international forest agenda, illegal logging is often ambiguously defined and there is considerable uncertainty about its quantitative and qualitative characteristics. This obscures assessments of its social, economic and environmental impacts and precludes informed policy conclusions. Through timber export statistics, estimates of the domestic timber consumption and official harvesting records, the extent of illegal logging and its breakdown to origin, felling agents and species groups is estimated for Ghana over the period 19962005 based on a definition that emphasises the violation of established forest management regulations. Of the total harvest, 70 or 2.3 2.7 million m3 annually is estimated to be illegally cut. Chainsaw operators, who supply most of the domestic lumber demand, account for two-thirds and the export oriented timber industry account for one-third of the illegal harvest. The most valuable timber species dominate the illegal harvest and they appear to originate mostly from forest reserves, which as a consequence are seriously threatened. Eliminating illegal logging will require positive economic incentives for rural people to protect and grow timber trees. This, however, calls for fundamental reform of the timber governance system.

Expression of bioactive peptides requires several modifications of the primary translation product. Gastrin, a vertebrate gut hormone, occurs in multiple forms, including a bioactive fragment of the predominant gastrin‐17. Gastrin‐17 is, however, without known cleavage sites. In order to identify the new site, we therefore isolated, from antral mucosa, fragments of gastrin‐34 and ‐17 monitored by monospecific immunoassays. After three steps of reverse‐phase chromatography, the short gastrins were identified as hepta‐, hexa‐ and pentapeptide amides. By far the most abundant of these was tyrosine O‐sulfated gastrin‐6. The near complete sulfation contrasts with the larger gastrins, of which only half are sulfated. The longest N‐terminal fragment of gastrin‐34 was a hexadecapeptide without complementarity to the short gastrins. Instead, the predominant N‐terminal fragment of gastrin‐17 was the decapeptide complementary to gastrin‐7. Therefore the novel processing site is the Glu10‐Ala11 bond that follows a poly(Glu6‐10) sequence. Moreover, gastrin‐7 is apparently trimmed, with subsequent accumulation of sulfated gastrin‐6. Consequently, O‐sulfated tyrosine ensures production of a new hormone which stimulates gastric acid secretion as potently as gastrin‐17.

Expression of bioactive peptides requires several modifications of the primary translation product. Gastrin, a vertebrate gut hormone, occurs in multiple forms, including a bioactive fragment of the predominant gastrin‐17. Gastrin‐17 is, however, without known cleavage sites. In order to identify the new site, we therefore isolated, from antral mucosa, fragments of gastrin‐34 and ‐17 monitored by monospecific immunoassays. After three steps of reverse‐phase chromatography, the short gastrins were identified as hepta‐, hexa‐ and pentapeptide amides. By far the most abundant of these was tyrosine O‐sulfated gastrin‐6. The near complete sulfation contrasts with the larger gastrins, of which only half are sulfated. The longest N‐terminal fragment of gastrin‐34 was a hexadecapeptide without complementarity to the short gastrins. Instead, the predominant N‐terminal fragment of gastrin‐17 was the decapeptide complementary to gastrin‐7. Therefore the novel processing site is the Glu10‐Ala11 bond that follows a poly(Glu6‐10) sequence. Moreover, gastrin‐7 is apparently trimmed, with subsequent accumulation of sulfated gastrin‐6. Consequently, O‐sulfated tyrosine ensures production of a new hormone which stimulates gastric acid secretion as potently as gastrin‐17.

An evaluation of the outcome after pancreatic surgery with focus on post-operative and late survival in elderly patients was performed.