Forestry Commission leads climate change campaign

The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, and the Climate Change Unit of the Forestry Commission (FC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) will launch the “REDD Eye” campaign and hold the maiden National REDD+ Forum to create awareness and secure buy-in for the REDD+ mechanism from Ghanaians.

REDD+ is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The Plus sign (+) represents activities that offer co-benefits; such as biodiversity conservation, sustainable forest management and carbon stocks enhancement.

REDD+ is an activity whose successful implementation will help reduce the impact of climate change, particularly in developing countries like Ghana.

Climate Change has become a worldwide phenomenon that is affecting all areas of human life. It is anthropogenic, in that all the drivers of climate change are human-induced.

Major drivers of climate change are deforestation and forest degradation; burning of fossil fuels; improper land use; industrialisation; indiscriminate bush-burning, among others. All these human-induced activities release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby causing global warming which leads to climate change.

In this country, climate change is manifested in high temperatures, unreliable rainfall patterns, which have implications for food security.

There have been several attempts to arrest climate change and its adverse effects worldwide, but REDD+ has been recognised as an activity whose successful implementation will help reduce the impacts of climate change, particularly in developing countries like Ghana.

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries have committed to providing incentives for developing countries that have large tracts of forest to help them expand, nurture and protect their forests. This will ensure that forests continue to play their natural role, which includes absorption of excess carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere in order to prevent dangerous warming of the earth which eventually leads to changes in climate.

As part of activities to create awareness about REDD+ and secure stakeholder acceptance of the idea, last year the Forestry Commission -- which hosts the National REDD+ Secretariat -- embarked on a National REDD+ Roadshow event. It was a mass communication campaign that involved visits to Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs), radio discussions, road processions, sensitisation of pupils and students, interactions with traditional authorities and local community members, film shows and durbars.

It was targetted at drawing attention to unsustainable land-use practices that lead to deforestation and forest degradation, and their negative impacts including global warming and loss of livelihood opportunities. The event also sought to galvanise public support for actions and measures targetted at addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Ghana. The Roadshow took place in Tarkwa, Dormaa Ahenkro, Hohoe and Damongo.

This year, the National REDD+ Secretariat has lined up a set of activities as a follow-up to that of 2014 -- all aimed at galvanising public and stakeholder support for REDD+.

The Secretariat also held local level consultations in six communities: namely Nyinahin, Bibiani, Enchi, Asamankese, Goaso and Assin Fosu.

In the Greater Accra Region, the National REDD+ Secretariat will organise a high-level consultative meeting for REDD+ Ambassadors with the objective of meeting to engage high-level actors among the key stakeholder groups, who will serve as ambassadors for Ghana’s Emission Reduction Programme dubbed the cocoa-forest REDD+ programme.

This event will see the coming-together of representatives from farmer groups, financial institutions, creative industry, private sector, CSOs/NGOS/FBOs and traditional authorities. These ambassadors are expected to advocate the REDD+ mechanism to their peers, emphasising the need to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices in their bid to combat climate change while enhancing farming activities.