National dialogue on Wood Energy and Forest Landscape Restoration in Ghana

This national dialogue is part of a wider series of initiatives implemented in the context of the project “International Dialogue on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and Wood Energy”. This project has been implemented by the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) on behalf of FAO, in collaboration with IEA Bioenergy, with funding from the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit” (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany. The overall objective of the project is to facilitate raising awareness and dialogue among stakeholders from both FLR and bioenergy communities on the positive contribution of Sustainable Bioenergy to FLR and vice versa, with a view to intensify opportunities for collaboration and to develop a joint agenda for action.

In Ghana, this project built upon the achievements of the activities conducted by GBEP in 2018, in the context of the project “Capacity building on the GBEP Sustainability Indicators for bioenergy in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries”. It benefitted from the involvement of the Multi-Stakeholders Working Group (MSWG) established in 2018, which originally focused on multifaceted aspects of bioenergy production and use in the country. The existing MSWG was enlarged for the scope of the present project, with the aim to include relevant stakeholders for the FLR sector in Ghana, thus providing an opportunity to set the basis for a long-term  cooperation and coordination amongst these two sectors. Furthermore, this event represented an example of a joint action amongst various international agencies (i.e. FAO Forestry Department, GBEP, FFF, GIZ), national research institutes and civil society working on the same thematic area in the country. It provided an opportunity to share knowledge and raise awareness about the activities currently on-going and on the results achieved so far in the country, thus allowing for a better allocation of funds and speeding up the achievement of respective goals in the territory.