Forest Landscape Restoration by means of sustainable wood energy value chains
Ghana’s forest areas are declining by around 2% every year. A large part of the felled wood is used as firewood and for charcoal – and the consumption of both of these energy sources is constantly increasing. In its national REDD+ strategy, Ghana has identified the improvement of wood energy production and its use as a key factor. However, measures to achieve this have not yet attained their potential – and there is a risk that the destruction of forests will continue, despite legislation that protects them. The project therefore supported its partner institutions in restoring forest landscapes, together with small entrepreneurs and organised producer groups from charcoal-producing regions. The project work included the sustainable production and use of wood energy, the improvement of the political and institutional framework for sustainable wood energy, the restoration of forest landscapes and the dissemination of the approach throughout the region.
- Countries
- Ghana
- IKI funding
- 4,500,000.00 €
- Duration
- 04/2019 till 05/2023
- Status
- completed
- Implementing organisation
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
- Political Partner
-
- Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources - Ghana
- Implementing Partner
-
- Energy Commission - Ghana
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Ghana
- Forestry Commission - Ghana
- IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands
- Ministry of Energy - Ghana
- Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) - Ghana
State of implementation/results
- Project completed.
- In ten charcoal-producing communities in the Bono East and Savannah regions, reforestation activities for sustainable energy wood production on degraded lands, rehabilitation of degraded forest landscapes, and improvement of energy-efficient use of energy wood and charcoal have been implemented since March 2020.
- To date, one million seedlings of native and fast-growing tree species have been planted on more than 1,000 hectares of degraded forest land.
- More than 3,000 residents of the ten project communities have benefited from the planting and nursery work to date, over 60% of whom are women.
- Three selected communities have already benefited since November 2020 from tree nurseries established by the project, which have since grown more than one million seedlings of native and fast-growing tree species.
- 5,000 efficient charcoal cooking stoves and five mobile charcoal kilns have been distributed in project communities to reduce the need for charcoal and thus pressure on forests, as well as minimize health impacts from cooking and charcoal production.
- Several studies on biodiversity, gender, wood energy value chain, and forest landscape restoration potential (ROAM) were conducted in the project communities. The reforestation and restoration concepts were developed based on these studies.
- A comprehensive recommendation for the development of a national regulation for sustainable charcoal production was developed with the involvement of various stakeholders and presented to the relevant government agencies and project partners.
- Project lessons learned were fed into the implementation of the national bioenergy, climate change policy and REDD+ strategy, directly contributing to the achievement of the NDC goals on sustainable forest management and climate change mitigation. Through support from the project, a new policy measure on sustainable charcoal production was adopted in the NDC update. In addition, the results were disseminated at regional and international levels.
Latest Update:
04/2024
Project relations
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