[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1134, 286], "category": "Text", "text": "Local climate change prospects make the situation even more threatening for Ghana's natural forests. According to studies from 2017¹⁴, this will in turn threaten cocoa productivity: \"climate suitability for cocoa cultivation in the Western regions of Ghana, the most important region for cocoa production in the country, will decrease substantially due to changing climate endangering other forested areas\"¹⁵. In 2022, the situation hasn't improved and may confirm the most threatening scenario."}, {"bbox": [96, 311, 1134, 524], "category": "Text", "text": "A general interest in agroforestry, intercropping, and diversification do exist amongst producers and institutions. At the same time, the country has set up very ambitious quantitative objectives in terms of cocoa production, which may be conflicting with the willingness to address the main issues of deforestation and child labour, in the absence of significant changes in cocoa production in Ghana¹⁶. Major actors seem to lack information to understand the root causes of deforestation, highlighted by recent studies. Overall, the lack of a national consensus on the drivers of cocoa unsustainability and the absence of a clear strategy to address those drivers hinder the efficiency of collaborative actions as well as the possibility to hold actors accountable. Inter-institutional coordination is very limited, which hinders data sharing and transparency (such as on forest cover and deforestation)."}, {"bbox": [96, 549, 1134, 763], "category": "Text", "text": "Cocoa agroforestry systems include timber trees, but also other fruit, fodder and multipurpose trees in a lower layer providing Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP), as well as agricultural crops on the ground such as Musa spp., cocoyam, vegetables etc. They are viewed as a serious solution to deforestation by maintaining cocoa productivity and securing revenues through diversification. However, naturally growing trees are said to belong to the public sector in the Ghanaian law and this definitely dissuades cocoa producers to establish those promising agroforestry systems. As a consequence, tree tenure is likely to be one of the main serious issue when it comes to deforestation. Liberalising the ownership of trees seems to be one of the most important priorities to stop deforestation in agricultural areas."}, {"bbox": [96, 788, 1134, 892], "category": "Text", "text": "When it comes to timber exploitation and trade under the FLEGT, there is a need to further promote the Ghana Wood Tracking System, to establish multi-stakeholder platforms to monitor illegal logging and harvesting and to address remaining issues with tree tenure, equity in benefit sharing and gender mainstreaming in the exploitation of natural resources."}, {"bbox": [96, 922, 1134, 973], "category": "Text", "text": "Identification of main stakeholders and corresponding institutional and/or organisational issues to be covered by the action:"}, {"bbox": [96, 1001, 1134, 1135], "category": "Text", "text": "From the Government side, the key stakeholders of this action are the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Forestry Commission, the COCOBOD and the Tree Crop Development Authority. The other stakeholders are the development partners with whom the action will be coordinated (UNICEF, World Bank for example), including EU Member states, civil society and the private sector and relevant service providers."}, {"bbox": [96, 1160, 1134, 1267], "category": "Text", "text": "Local authorities will be directly involved because of their role in land planning, environment protection and economic development. The Northern Development Authority, the Directorate of Agriculture within the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC), and the districts of the five northern regions in particular will be part of the action implementation."}, {"bbox": [96, 1292, 1134, 1399], "category": "Text", "text": "Farmer Based Organisations (FBO) and Civil Society Organisations (CSO)¹⁷ will implement some of the activities at the grassroots level. They have developed solid expertise in land planning, conservation and productive use of natural resources. They are also key to social cohesion and local democracy thanks to extensive experience working with local communities."}, {"bbox": [86, 1490, 1143, 1529], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁴ Predicting the Future Climatic Suitability for Cocoa Farming of the World's leading Producer Countries, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, P. Läderach et al., 2017 (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-013-0774-8); and World Bank 2017."}, {"bbox": [86, 1529, 259, 1548], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁵ The World Bank, 2017."}, {"bbox": [86, 1548, 1143, 1626], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁶ Along with its mandate, production is the focus of the COCOBOD. Among its objectives, the COCOBOD purchases, markets and exports cocoa, and cocoa products produced in Ghana, as well as regulates the internal marketing of cocoa, secures the most favourable arrangements for the purchase, grading and sealing, certification, sale and export of cocoa. It therefore important to take this aspect into account when dealing with the different perspectives raised by the actors of the dialogue on sustainable cocoa."}, {"bbox": [86, 1626, 327, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ Including youth-led organisations"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 9 of 26"}]