The African Development Bank (AfDB) had granted approval for $24 million to be channelled towards restoring degraded forest reserves and doubling a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forest plantation in Ghana, as FSC reported.
The project is designed to help reverse the devastating trend of deforestation in Ghana by restoring and expanding an existing FSC certified 5,000 hectares forest plantation to nearly 12,000 hectares sustainable commercial forest plantation. The project will conform to FSC standards at all times.
The forestry sector is estimated to contribute about 4% to the country’s GDP, and provides a livelihood for around 650,000 people. This project will create new 400 direct full-time jobs and 600 direct seasonal jobs. Part of the project plan is for 40% of the jobs generated to be held by women.
Paul Hol, Executive Director of Form International, stated that “this is a breakthrough for private investments in forestry on the continent…It can be an important front running project for the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and NEPAD which aims at restoring 100 million ha of land in Africa by the year 2030”.
