Payment formats for REDD+ interventions: Preferences and concerns in Aowin District, Ghana

Summary

Ghana is in the process of getting ready to implement REDD+ interventions, led by the Ghana Forestry Commission which is the implementing agency. 

Ghana has opted for REDD+ to undertake climate change mitigation actions within, but not limited to, the forest sector. Potential mitigation actions identified include reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation; conservation of forest carbon stocks; sustainable forest management; and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (Ghana Forestry Commission 2010). Seven potential biodiversity conservation areas across the high forest (HF) and transitional forest zones (TF) have been selected as pilot areas, with a top-priority focus on two pilot objectives. These comprise managing the cocoa production landscapes in the Aowin District, located in the HF zone of the western region to reduce the risk of forest encroachment and to promote beekeeping and woodlot development to alleviate the degradation of agro-ecosystems of economic tree crops (Dawadawa) in the TF zone. 

The present study was undertaken with the objective of understanding the types of compensation the community members aspire to, in return for avoiding deforestation and refraining from livelihood activities that could potentially lead to forest degradation, as well as for undertaking other positive mitigation activities. The importance of such studies in different community contexts cannot be underestimated since the successful implementation of REDD+ itself depends on the provision of compensation packages that would satisfy different sections/groups of the community – ethnic groups, women and men, young and old, indigenes, in-migrants and so on.