Ghana has secured a $30 million grant from the United Arab Emirates UAE as part of a broader partnership to address climate change and enhance forest conservation efforts.
On September 27, 2024, on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Week in New York, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, MP, on behalf of the government, and the UAE Minister for Climate Change and Environment, H.E Dr. Amna Al Dahak Al Shamsi, signed a Letter of Intent to provide up to US$30 million to implement the biodiversity and climate objectives of the Resilient Ghana Package and REDD+ Strategies.
This funding will be used to support the country’s “Resilient Ghana” initiative, which focuses on reforestation, biodiversity, and agroecology. The initiative aims to reduce deforestation, restore degraded forest lands, and create sustainable livelihoods for local communities. This partnership also aligns with global efforts to halt deforestation by 2030, as outlined in the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration.
Deforestation remains one of the major drivers of climate change. Between 2001 and 2015, Ghana lost some 209,034 hectares of forests, representing a deforestation rate of about 0.19% per annum. This was driven primarily by agricultural expansion, illegal logging, and small-scale mining.
As Ghana is one of the world’s forest-rich countries and 2nd largest producer of cocoa, the deforestation rate represented a major challenge to the achievement of the Paris Agreement, as well as global supply chains.
Ghana’s efforts to tackle deforestation have resulted in a 48% improvement in the high forest zone since 2017. Through strategies such as the Resilient Ghana Package and REDD+ Programme, the Government seeks to scale up efforts to halt and reverse forest loss and forest degradation by 2030.
This forms part of efforts by the government to achieve the biodiversity and climate objectives under the Resilient Ghana Package launched at Conference Of Parties COP28 in Dubai, last year.
In 2022, at COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, President Akufo-Addo, and the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak, launched the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) as a new political forum that brings together governments and partners to work together to implement solutions that reduce forest loss, increase restoration, and support sustainable development.
Subsequently, at COP 28 in Dubai, Ghana launched her Resilient Ghana Package for nature, climate, and people, under the FCLP.
The Resilient Ghana package includes an integrated system-wide suite of interventions to help halt and reverse forest loss while delivering sustainable development and promoting inclusive rural transformation.
