Ghana advances forest stewardship

To  achieve national stewardship, Ghana has embarked on a forest restoration and tree planting programme that covers 15,000 hectares of degraded lands in the Asubima Forest Reserve. Managed by Form Ghana, the task will simultaneously generate fungible carbon credits and support the commercial harvest of teak timber and planting of native tree species.

The SCS Global Services (SCS) under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) has independently validated the environmental project, which according to the audit team has already resulted in the reduction of more than 5,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over four years on land that was previously degraded by overharvesting, bush fires, and conversion to agricultural land.

Form Ghana, a forest plantation management firm, has a land lease agreement with local land owners and the government of Ghana for reforestation on approximately 1,800 hectares of the reserve. This lease is part of the presidential policy that seeks to restore degraded forest reserves in Ghana. This is a ‘grouped’ project, which means that additional forest areas can be added to the project later.

“This project represents a win-win for the climate and for Ghana in achieving its national forest stewardship goals,” said Dr. Robert J. Hrubes , executive vice president of SCS. “Verification against a rigorous standard such as the VCS confirms the high quality of the project."