[PRESS RELEASE]
Accra, January 24, 2023-Ghana has become the second African country after Mozambique to receive payments from a World Bank trust fund for reducing deforestation and forest degradation emissions, commonly known as REDD+. The World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) paid Ghana $4,862,280 for reducing 972,456 tons of carbon emissions for the first monitoring period under the program (June to December 2019).
Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, said, “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. 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.”
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, unsustainable harvesting, and small-scale mining. Ghana is one of 15 countries that have signed ERPAs with the World Bank. Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer. Cocoa drives the economy, but it is also one of the main causes of deforestation and forest degradation in the southeast and western regions of the country. Stakeholders are working to help some 140,000 Ghanaian farmers increase 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.
Samuel A. Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, said, “The years of dialogue, consultations, and negotiations with local communities, traditional authorities, government agencies, private sector, CSOs, and NGOs have paid off. These emission reduction payments 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’s Cocoa Board is participating in the REDD+ process, as are some of the world’s most important cocoa and chocolate companies, including World Cocoa Foundation members like Mondelēz International, Olam, Touton, and others. Their combined actions are helping bring change to the cocoa sector and helping Ghana meet its national emissions reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement. This level of collaboration is also reflected in the benefit-sharing plan underpinning Ghana’s ERPA with the World Bank. The plan is prepared through extensive consultations with local stakeholders and civil society organizations. It ensures that all participating stakeholders are fairly recognized and rewarded for reducing emissions.