Ghanaian non-profit organization, Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC), has unveiled a document on Ghana’s landscape approaches to guide stakeholders on how to implement landscape governance to boost cocoa production and protect the environment.
The Director of Programs and Research at NCRC, Rebecca Ashley Asare, said the new document underscores large-scale solutions through landscape governance, multi-stakeholder partnerships and sustainable funding with internally-generated funds.
She said the 67-paged book provides stakeholders with a comprehensive toolbox of information about landscape governance, landscape standards and landscape monitoring to promote sustainability in the cocoa sector.
Dr. Asare said landscape approaches provide multi-stakeholder solutions and climate smart responses to tackle environmental pollution and climate change.
The Director of Operations, Plantations and Forest Commission Chair of Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program (GCFRP) Implementation Committee, Hugh Brown, said widespread adoption of safer farming methods can reap more economic benefits while ensuring the survival of the nation’s forests and protected areas.
He said unsafe practices such as the use of cyanide by illegal miners must be considered a serious threat to the nation’s resources and efforts made to clamp down on such activities.
With support from IUCN-Netherlands, the World Cocoa Foundation, and Partnerships for Forests, the project captures the existing knowledge and experiences about Ghana’s landscape approaches into a Guidance Document and Toolbox, to facilitate learning through a series of Landscape Learning Dialogues.