Communities to be rewarded for planting trees to reduce carbon emissions
Over thousand cocoa planting communities in Ghana are expected to benefit from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). The government received $4,862,280 from the World Bank for reducing 972,456 tons of carbon emissions for the first monitoring between June and December 2019 under the program. Director of Climate Change at the Forestry Commission, Roselyn Fosuah Adjei, assured the fund allocation shall not be paid through intermediaries as the communities have established committees to oversee smooth payments of the funds.She spoke during an institutional visit to the Commission by ten West African journalists under the 2022 Climate Change Journalism Fellowship organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa. “We’ve set up a governance structure with the communities. They have their leadership. They have their own bank accounts with signatories. We will work out how they are able to utilize their funds to their maximum best,” she said. Mrs. Fosuah Adjei further indicated that the remainder of the funds will be paid into the coffers of the Commission and the secretariat in-charge of the initiative.