Ghana received approval from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a project to restore degraded forest reserves and double a sustainable forest plantation through a first-of-its-kind Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in its forest sector.

The project is backed by a US $10-million concessional loan from the Climate Investment Funds’ Forest Investment Program (CIF FIP) approved on July 1, and supplemented by US $14 million in co-financing from the AfDB, according to African development bank.

The project approval comes a day after Ghana ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change at the UN in New York, signaling its full commitment to linking its climate action and development path. Ghana’s restoration of its forest sector will play an important role in meeting its commitments under the Agreement.

Ghana’s forests, which once covered a third of its 24-million-hectare landmass, have been degraded at an alarming rate by excessive and often illegal logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, mining and quarrying, and fuelwood collection.

The newly approved project aims to help reverse this trend by restoring and expanding an existing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified 5,000 ha forest plantation to nearly 12,000 ha of sustainable commercial forest plantation made up of 10% indigenous tree species and 90% teak.

Importantly, the program will conform to both FSC and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) certification standards. Developed under the CIF’s competitive set-aside program to engage the private sector, the project is a partnership with Form Ghana, a private Ghanaian company with the motto "Forests for the Future", which applies sustainable plantation management to attract new investors in the forest plantation subsector.

The project will help meet Ghana’s overarching FIP goals (Forest Investment Program) by addressing the underlying drivers of deforestation and catalyzing transformational change through up-front investment to support the country’s strategy on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD+).

Source  : XINHUA