Ghana’s green cocoa farmers share the benefits of REDD+ implementation

^{Beneficiaries of the Ghana benefit sharing mechanism pose for a group photo outside their community office}  

When extreme weather and drought slashed cocoa production in Ghana’s Asunafo District more than a decade ago, many farmers blamed witchcraft for the failure of their crops and abandoned their lands for better opportunities in the cities. 

 

But it was through the training programmes for the country’s National REDD+ Strategy – established in 2015 - that the remaining cocoa farmers in the western Ghana district started to understand the impacts of climate change and how restoring and protecting forests could help revive their livelihoods. 

“The farmers thought it was witchery. This was causing our farms to die. Why would it not rain when it is the time for it to rain,” said Daniel Amponsah Gyinayeh, a 66-year-old cocoa farmer with a 25-acre plot of land near the town of Goaso 

“But (the scheme) said as long as the forests are gone, cocoa will also go forever so let’s do something to bring them back.” 

Gyinayeh, who is also the founder of a co-operative that has 15,000 members across 75 communities in the district, and his fellow farmers were taught sustainable farming techniques, forest conservation, and given tree seedlings to plant on their farms to help shield their cocoa trees from the rising temperatures and aid rainfall. 

Before Ghana launched its REDD+ programme, Gyinayeh’s cocoa beans output had plummeted to 20 bags per year – each weighing 64 kg – down from 100 bags previously. He’s now back up to 60 bags and climbing – proof that the farmers’ efforts to go green and protect their forests are working.    

“We can see the difference. It is good,” said Gyinayeh, who has more than three decades of cocoa growing experience and whose first introduction to farming was as a child, playing on his grandfather’s cocoa plantation on weekends. 

_{Community members sorting out tree seedlings in their nursery}

 

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“I am into snail farming and through this, I have been able to gain enough money that pays the school fees of my children and takes care of the home. the mother of six said. It has changed my life through capacity building and training. which has helped to increase our cocoa yields.

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Such has been the success of Ghana government’s sustainability push within the REDD+ framework – especially the involvement of multiple stakeholders such as local communities – that the West African nation has been able to access results-based payments. 

Backed by a World Bank trust fund, the first payment for reducing emissions – USD$ 4.86 million - was made in January 2023 for 2019 monitoring period for reducing 972,456 tons of CO2 emissions, with a further payment of $16 million was made in June this year for 2020/2021 monitoring period for reducing 3,379,161 tons of CO2 emissions. 

Accra-based Ivy Ashiley is the Benefit Sharing Mechanism Officer for the REDD+ Programme and a planning specialist at Ghana’s Forestry Commission a planning specialist at the National REDD+ Secretariat housed in the Climate Change Directorate of Ghana’s Forestry Commission. It is her job to help allocate disburse the funds for further implementation of emissions-reducing projects, including among government agencies, farmers, and community groups – so that those making a difference are rewarded for their efforts. 

Cocoa farmers have now received agriculture equipment and tree seedlings to bolster replanting efforts, while community awareness programmes are helping educate people about the need to reduce emissions within landscapes – even those not directly involved in the scheme. 

“It is very important that if people put in so much effort to reduce emissions, that they are acknowledged. This is a good way forward,” said Ashiley, hoping that Ghana’s regional leadership with REDD+ can help other countries in the region adopt similar strategies. 

“Emissions reductions are very important. It helps the country and the world as a whole … Ghana is doing so much on emissions, so if we can help other countries come onboard … that would help so much.” 

Improving protection and restoration of natural areas, be they parks, forests, or oceans, is crucial to maintaining the biodiversity on which animals and humans depend on, while aiding global climate goals. Around the globe people are reliant on nature to supply them with clean air and water, and to regulate rainfall that is vital for growing food crops. Plants and trees also absorb planet-heating carbon dioxide and bolstering conservation efforts – be it through the efforts of Indigenous People, NGOs, governments or businesses - is widely seen as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to tackle climate change. 

The unsung heroes of conservation, Indigenous Peoples, make up about 476 million of the global population and together, owning, managing or occupying one-quarter of the world’s land that is home to 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity. 

Ghana is the world’s second-largest coca grower - which has been a key driver in deforestation - and is the most advanced country in Africa in the REDD+ process. The Ghana Forestry Commission has coordinated this work with the Ghana Cocoa Board, together with involvement of private sector, local communities and traditional authorities.  

 

^{Two women beneficiaries sorting out tree seedlings for planting} 

 

Grace Asare is a cocoa farmer and beneficiary of the REDD+ results-based programme in Ghana’s central region of Kakum HIA. She said many men in her community had previously cut down trees and begun illegal mining after cocoa output fell when drought hit. The REDD+ scheme had helped her and other women in her community find additional and more sustainable income, such as growing vegetables, beekeeping and snail farming. 

“I am into snail farming and through this, I have been able to gain enough money that pays the school fees of my children and takes care of the home,” the mother of six said. 

“It has changed my life through capacity building and training. which has helped to increase our cocoa yields.” 

 

_{A community official preparing seedlings for planting in Accra, Ghana}

 

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“Through capacity building, education and programmes, our lives have been improved,” Asare said, adding that the scheme had given “women like myself the opportunity to become and live a better life”.  

-Grace Asare  |  Cocoa farmer and beneficiary of the REDD+ results-based programme, Ghana

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Training sessions through the programme promote the need to include women in forest-related governance and decision-making, and this had given Asare the stage and opportunity to educate herself and other women about the impacts of climate change. 

“The challenges women face is that there’s mostly no money to support their farming activities. Even if they want to be part of the program, their husbands don’t allow it,” she said. 

“We need funds to maximize the good work we are doing,” she added. 

Through the REDD+ scheme, Asare and other women in the region have planted trees both on farms and in degraded forest areas, while many men previously responsible for illegal logging had found alternative jobs that help protect and promote biodiversity. She said the benefit sharing funds had helped her community by providing finance for farming tools, training in sustainable farming, and the drilling of boreholes to help combat drought. 

“Through capacity building, education and programmes, our lives have been improved,” Asare said, adding that the scheme had given “women like myself the opportunity to become and live a better life”.  

“To all Ghanaians, let’s keep planting the trees and not cut them down,” she added. 

_{Photo credit: © Ghana National REDD+ Secretariat}   

With inputs from Michael Muratha