Climate Change and REDD+
Climate Change is one of the most dominant environmental challenges the world is facing today. It is undermining development efforts the world has made over the years, especially in Africa. Key sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, health and wildlife are very vulnerable. Developing countries are the most vulnerable to climate change due to their low adaptive capacity and dependence on natural resources sensitive to changes in climate. Studies have revealed significant changes in the weather conditions in Ghana over the last decades. Unresolved climate change impacts therefore present many challenges to Ghana more especially the rural communities who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.
Conservation Alliance’s climate change programme supports the development and implementation of solutions aimed at combating the impacts of climate change. CA’s approach encompasses the use of research and on-the-ground implementation that generate lessons that can feed into policy at the national level.
Among projects undertaken by CA are; the project ‘Assessing the adaptation mechanisms of smallholder farmers to climate change and agrobiodiversity losses in northern Ghana’. This was implemented in collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness of the University of Ghana with funding from the global change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), USA. The overall goal of the project is to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers by generating information on climate change and agrobiodiversity losses and reviewing the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP).
CA also conducted an assessment of the Legal and Policy Frameworks to Address the Impacts of Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity. This was part of the project ‘Enhancing the Adaptation of Smallholder Farmers, especially Women, to Climate Change for Improved Agricultural Production in Ghana’. This project was funded by Alliance for Green Revolution in Agriculture (AGRA) and implemented by a consortium from academia, government and NGO’s.
The emergence of REDD (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation) as one of the pathways for addressing climate change has gained recognition both at the international and national levels. Ghana has received support from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) initiative of the World Bank to prepare for implementation of REDD+. As part of Ghana’s REDD readiness phase seven pilot project have been selected to provide lessons for Ghana’s REDD+ implementation.
The Kakum REDD+ project being implemented by CA in the central region of Ghana is one of the pilot projects. The project is in cocoa producing landscapes fringing the Kakum National Park and it aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation, enhance carbon stock in low shade cocoa farms and improve farmers’ livelihoods.