Ghana has become the second country in Africa after Mozambique to receive payments from a World Bank fund for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, commonly known as REDD+.
The World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) paid Ghana $4,862,280 for reducing 972,456 tons of emissions for the first monitoring period under the program (June to December 2019).
“This payment is the first of four under the country’s Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) with the World Bank to demonstrate potential for leveraging results-based payments for carbon credits,” said Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. “Subject to showing results from actions taken to reduce deforestation, Ghana is eligible to receive up to $50 million for 10 million tons of CO2 emissions reduced by the end of 2024.”
Deforestation in Ghana
These actions are within a six-million-hectare stretch of the West Africa Guinean Forest, where biodiversity and forests are under pressure from cocoa farming, illegal logging and small-scale mining. Ghana’s cocoa forest landscape has one of the highest deforestation rates in Africa, at 3.2% per year.
“The many years of dialogue, consultations, and negotiations with local communities, traditional authorities, government agencies, private sector, CSOs, and NGOs have paid off,” said Samuel A. Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources. “This emission reductions payment will further promote confidence in Ghana’s REDD+ process for action to reduce deforestation and forest degradation while empowering local community livelihoods. The road to global 1.5 degrees cannot be achieved without healthy standing forests, and Ghana is committed to making it possible.”
Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer. Cocoa drives the economy, but also deforestation and forest degradation in the southeast and western regions of the country. Stakeholders are working to help some 140,000 farmers maximize cocoa production using climate-smart agroforestry approaches, rather than slash-and-burn land-clearing techniques that decimate forests. More sustainable cocoa farming helps avoid the expansion of cocoa farms into forest lands and secures more predictable income streams for communities.
Ghana’s Cocoa Board is participating in the REDD+ process, as are some of the most important cocoa and chocolate companies in the world, including World Cocoa Foundation members like Mondelēz International, Olam, Touton, and others. Their combined actions are not only bringing change to the cocoa sector but are also helping Ghana meet its national emissions reductions commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Sharing Benefits
A benefit-sharing plan prepared through consultations with local stakeholders and civil society organizations will ensure all participating stakeholders are fairly recognized and rewarded for their role in reducing emissions.
Eighteen African countries are part of FCPF including Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Sudan, Nigeria, Mozambique, Madagascar, Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, Gabon, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic.