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Actor Perceptions of the Governance Framework and Non-Carbon Benefits from the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program: An Extended Q-Study of the Juabuso-Bia Hotspot Intervention Area.

ABSTRACT: The expansion of cocoa farms is a major driver of deforestation and emissions in Ghana's high forest zone. The Ghana Cocoa Forest Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program (REDD+) was launched as the world's first commodity-based initiative to address emissions from deforestation caused by cocoa production and generate non-carbon benefits. Hotspot Intervention Areas were established to implement the Ghana Cocoa REDD+ program. This study combines Q-methodology with focus group discussions and interviews to assess stakeholder perceptions in the Juabuso-Bia cocoa landscape regarding the capacity of the Hotspot Intervention Area to facilitate the generation of governance and economic non-carbon benefits to sustain emission reductions. We found that introducing the Hotspot Intervention Area has re-centralized landscape governance, which, coupled with weak collaboration among stakeholders, has led to poor generation of non-carbon benefits. Furthermore, efforts to include women in the leadership structure of the Hotspot Intervention Area can be described as tokenism, and little has been done to improve land and tree tenure for vulnerable groups. This, combined with the low adoption of climate-smart cocoa practices, is likely to negatively affect the generation of economic non-carbon benefits. To overcome these challenges, we recommend reforming the Hotspot Intervention Area, bolstering community-level sensitization, improving access to decision-making spaces that will enhance the participation of women and minority groups in landscape governance, and improving farmers' tenure security through a registration scheme for land and trees. These recommendations can ensure the efficient generation of non-carbon benefits, which are key to the success of REDD+.

SUBMITTER: Dugasseh FA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11208209 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Actor Perceptions of the Governance Framework and Non-Carbon Benefits from the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program: An Extended Q-Study of the Juabuso-Bia Hotspot Intervention Area.

Dugasseh Frank Akowuge FA Adams Marshall Alhassan MA Zandersen Marianne M

Environmental management 20240430 1

The expansion of cocoa farms is a major driver of deforestation and emissions in Ghana's high forest zone. The Ghana Cocoa Forest Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program (REDD+) was launched as the world's first commodity-based initiative to address emissions from deforestation caused by cocoa production and generate non-carbon benefits. Hotspot Intervention Areas were established to implement the Ghana Cocoa REDD+ program. This study combines Q-methodology with focu ...[more]

PMID: 38691161

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Project description:The goal of global malaria programming is to eliminate and eventually eradicate the disease. Achieving this global goal requires eliminating malaria in individual endemic countries. This paper, based on the observations of current and former implementers of malaria programs at district level, examines Ghana's malaria strategy to determine its adequacy for the elimination of malaria in the country, with a focus on the governance of district health systems. The paper argues that Ghana's malaria strategy is medically oriented, focusing predominantly on diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The strategy ignores determinants of malaria that are related to lifestyle and environment. Furthermore, there is limited engagement with other district-level stakeholders, and what engagement does occur is neither systematic nor sustained. Ghana's malaria strategy therefore requires a systematic rethinking to mobilize the participation of communities in district governance for malaria. The paper proposes several possible actions to restructure district governance of malaria. In Ghana, the malaria program should engage with key stakeholders in districts, using a systematic and sustained approach, to strengthen multisectoral action and community participation. This will require new accountability relationships for malaria progress within communities and among District Assemblies, district health authorities, and communities. Malaria programs in other African countries may also need to be similarly redirected towards community health governance for malaria progress. Simultaneously, global health and malaria agencies should redefine malaria as a social problem and collectively adopt a social determinants approach to strengthening national malaria programs. Pursuing the goals of elimination and eventual eradication of malaria without incorporating effective control of mosquito breeding and public health regulation is a fundamentally flawed approach. Progress on malaria requires a paradigm shift, from a medical perspective to a social determinant-informed approach with sustained and systematic engagement of all stakeholders in local communities.

Dataset Information

Actor Perceptions of the Governance Framework and Non-Carbon Benefits from the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program: An Extended Q-Study of the Juabuso-Bia Hotspot Intervention Area.

Publications

Actor Perceptions of the Governance Framework and Non-Carbon Benefits from the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program: An Extended Q-Study of the Juabuso-Bia Hotspot Intervention Area.

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