By Francis Ntow, GNA
Accra, April 30, GNA – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative has generated nearly US$22 million in funding for landscapes across cocoa growing areas in Ghana, marking a significant financial milestone in Ghana’s environmental resilience efforts.
The initiative encourages practices to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation while promoting sustainable cocoa production and improving rural livelihoods through the UNDP Green Commodities Programme, funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
At the heart of the initiative is the Hotspot Intervention Areas (HIAs) priority landscapes co-managed by communities, traditional authorities, private sector actors, and government institutions.
Leif Pedersen, Senior Commodities Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), made the disclosure at a stakeholder dialogue to assess progress and map out a long-term sustainability strategy for the programme.
Mr Pedersen described the funding of US$22m as a significant milestone for the Hotspot Intervention Areas, which had been operating for the past two-and-a-half years and expected to end this year.
“It is almost US$22m so far – but more is coming only if it generates results on the ground,” he said, framing the funding not as an achievement already secured but an ongoing performance contract between Ghana and its international climate finance partners.
He cited strengthening the governance capacity of HIA management boards and establishing multi-stakeholder platforms for dialogue, learning, and coordinated action as key achievements of the programme.
Mr Pedersen called for a systemic transformation of the landscapes to address climate vulnerabilities, unresolved land tenure disputes, and reduce the acceleration of migration of young people from farming communities to urban centres.
Looking ahead, he said: “The Forestry Commission must commit long-term funding to HIA structures and the multi-stakeholder platform, whether through carbon payment revenues reinvested into governance and afforestation capacity, regular public budgets, or even loan financing.”
Dr Joseph Appiah-Gyapong, the Director, Climate Change Unit, Forestry Commission, said the programme had demonstrated real results over its two-and-a-half years of implementation.
It had enabled farmers, women’s groups, and community associations to enhance their livelihoods and adopt climate-smart agricultural practices while also benefiting equitably from carbon proceeds, he said.
“The carbon proceeds and the credible beneficiary plans developed consultatively in each HIA ensure that benefits are well shared – reaching traditional authorities, women’s groups, and the broader community,” Dr Appiah-Gyapong said.
“This tangible benefit-sharing had been a key driver of community buy-in and active participation in forest management,” he said, noting that at the community level, the programme’s impact had been felt in concrete ways.
Responding to the call for sustaining the programme, he affirmed the Government’s commitment to making budgetary allocations, pursuing carbon fund opportunities, and actively inviting private sector participation.
The Reverend Augustine Dabo, Board Chair of the Ahafo Ano HIA, said the programme facilitated cross-learning visits between communities, deepened farmers’ understanding of forest governance frameworks, and shifted his own practice as a farmer towards more deliberate tree planting and registration on his farm.
It had also provided HIA offices with essential equipment, including laptops and projectors, transforming governance structures from paper concepts into functioning institutions, he said.
“The project helped us to understand more about our constitution. Workshops engaged stakeholders like the Cocoa Board and the Forestry Commission, and we learnt how to register trees and were encouraged to plant more,” Rev Dabo added.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe