By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
With less than one and a half years to the deadline for Ghana to achieve the 10 million-ton reduction in carbon emissions set out in an agreement with the World Bank, the government has assured that it is right on a course toward attainment of the goal so as to access the 50 million-dollar prize grant.
The country was able to reduce carbon emissions by 972,000,456 tons of harmful gas between July and December in 2019, the first year of implementation of the agreement for which the World Bank released the first tranche of four point-eight million Dollars.
A ceremony has been held at Akyawkrom in the Ashanti region during which the total amount was formally disbursed to all the participating individuals and groups, including cocoa farmers, as an incentive to sustain interest in pursuing the set target.
In 2019, Ghana’s subscription to the World Bank’s Trust Fund for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation was launched and fully implemented, with a target to achieve a 10 million-ton reduction in carbon dioxide emission in the country by the end of 2024.
Ghana stands the chance to access up go 50 million Dollars in grant from the Fund under the initiative christened ‘Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme’, GCFR as part of the global efforts at arresting the climate change phenomenon.
This is to be achieved through preservation and protection of six million hectares of the country’s forest cover by addressing some of the factors leading to deforestation and environmental degradation, such as illegal mining, commonly called ‘Galamsey’, unlawful logging in forests and harmful agricultural practices.
Seven administrative regions involving 19 districts which have been zoned into five ‘Hotspot Intervention Areas’ are where the programme is being implemented with about 241 thousand cocoa farmers signing up.
They are in parts of the Ashanti, Western North, Central, Ahafo, Western and Northern regions and are required to protect existing trees on their cocoa farms as well as plant and nurture new ones during the period as proof of their commitment to the programme objective while increasing yield and profitability of their cocoa farms.
On behalf of the participating farmers, Nicholas Nkrumah, who is a member of the Hotspot Intervention Area Management Board, described the programme as the panacea to the falling cocoa production in Ghana.
The programme has a regular monitoring and evaluation mechanism to assess the progress made at the individual, community and district levels at four scheduled periods.
Thus is the mechanism the World Bank used to determine that Ghana had made gains in the first assessment for the period of June-December 2019 during which the participating partners were able to reduce a total of 972 thousand, 456 tons of carbon dioxide and therefore qualified for the first tranche of four point-eight million Dollars for that assessment period.
A ceremony was therefore held at Akyawkrom in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region to officially disburse the amount to all the parties with a chunk of it going to the Hotspot Intervention Areas for the procurement of farming inputs for all the farmers.
Madam Roselyn Fosuah Adjei of the Ghana
Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme and also the Climate Change Department of the Forestry Commission, announced the sharing formula of the available funds to ensure transparency.
A Senior Environmental Specialist of the World Bank, Ms Darshani De Silva, who is also in charge of the Ghana Emission Reduction Programme, said Ghana is one of the 15 countries in Africa to have signed up to the Fund and one of the only two countries, including Mozambique, to have accessed the money so far.
A Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu Bio, disclosed that Ghana is looking forward to receiving additional grants from the Fund as evaluation of performance for the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 are pending.
He called on all to show interest and commitment to the programme to protect the environment.
Ghana Cocoa Board, Forestry Commission, World Bank and District Assemblies are among the key partners in the implementation of the programme.