Apra Mountain — AEDI STUDIO

APRA MOUNTAIN

DISTRIBUTED FORESTRY
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
CLIMATE MITIGATION

African forests are in crisis. With one of the highest deforestation rates globally, Africa's agro-forest landscape is being destroyed at an alarming rate by illegal logging, mining, and continued cocoa and palm-oil farm expansion. The Apra Forest Foundation proposal is a distributed forestry model for carbon offsetting that deploys sustainable land management practices within customary law environments in Africa for conservation and improved livelihoods.

The Awutu Kingdom is at a crossroads. It must decide how it will be integrated into national planning and infrastructure expenditure without losing its customary autonomy.

The Kingdom can be meaningfully interconnected into the Greater Accra City Region without losing its traditional practices. There are two ways to do this: defining the stool lands as an adjunct to an integrated national spatial development plan and developing a land-use model that bridges traditional land-use practices with capital market development forces. For centuries, the Awutu people have lived on their own terms, independent of national planning efforts. Now they must decide how they will be included in Ghana's vision for growth while retaining their unique traditions—a difficult task given that Ghana's urbanization has been driven by private development forces rather than public policy.

In order for the Awutu Kingdom to be meaningfully interconnected into the Greater Accra City Region, it must develop a land-use model that bridges traditional land-use practices with capital market forces.

As a result, we developed a high-level spatial and environmental evaluation of urban corridors and development pressure on customary law land-use practices and development of broader strategies to reduce deforestation and increase forests while reinforcing the green infrastructure network. The distributed forestry model for the Awutu Kingdom requires spatial planning to help manage plantation inefficiencies across land-use patterns of the traditional stools within the customary law. The project will include an analysis of forestry policy incentives and conservation investment through carbon credits. We have developed a concept note that can be used to protect forests and mitigate climate change. The model is based on distributed plantations where trees are grown on fragmented farmland. Farmers can manage aggregated land for commercial forestry or farmed trees during their growth period, together with income generation for communities that protect indigenous forests.

Similarly, deployment of the model needs to be matched by equitable access to economic drivers for landholders to benefit from carbon markets integrated with institutional frameworks like REDD. The forestry model allows us to consider sustainable development using market-driven solutions to arrest deforestation and offset carbon within the Kingdom.

A DISTRIBUTED FORESTRY MODEL FOR CARBON OFFSETS

Africa's agro-forest landscape has one of the highest deforestation rates globally, where deforestation is being driven by illegal logging, mining, and continued cocoa and palm-oil farm expansion. Several initiatives are working to address deforestation at the country level in Ghana, including the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and Carbon Fund. The Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA), Resettlement Policy Framework, and the Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) are all attributed to the rapid evolution of land and forestry management in Ghana towards equitable land and tree tenure often underpins local social-ecological system.

Ghana is also implementing international forest sector initiatives like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). For instance, GHG emission reduction and enhancement assessments, climate-smart cocoa and palm oil implementation strategies, innovative and transformational policies, livelihoods for forest-dependent communities and enhancing local community engagement in natural resources management are component to Ghana's Forest Investment Program. The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) is a legally-binding bilateral trade agreement that aims to improve forest governance and promote trade in legal timber from Ghana to the EU. These initiatives all contribute to a policy environment that allows us to consider and develop new working models for market-driven solutions to arrest deforestation and offset carbon within changing environments impacted by global warming.

With population growth, rapid urbanisation and the decline in fertile land, large land parcels for conventional forestry are becoming scarcer and more expensive. As a result, distributed plantations where trees are grown on different atomised land parcels of farmland offer an alternative solution. Farmers manage the trees during the growth period, and a potential generation of carbon credits can be blended with apportioned commercial forestry or farming. While a holding company would maintain exclusive carbon rights, landowners are compensated through a shared plantation and management system that is funded by a credit system. By applying the principle of distributed plantations as part of a carbon offset strategy, we can help reduce deforestation and forest degradation that is critical to forest conservation and the sustainable life-cycles of social-ecological systems through;

• measurement and verification;
• spatial and ecological planning;
• increasing forestation while maintaining farming production;
• risk management and finance

Our vision is to arrest global biodiversity loss and facilitate social-ecological systems integration .

We are proposing a strategy to support our vision to restore and sustainably manage the African forest. The strategy contains several actions to improve monitoring and reporting and build on the biodiversity and forestry knowledge base to fill the scientific and social sciences research gaps needed for sustainable long-life management of the forests.

An Advisory Board will track expenditure for forestation, proof all spending against adverse effects on biodiversity, and develop a financial model for forestry and biodiversity management in order to support the objectives of our vision, including strategic partnerships with private stakeholders and the civil society.

A partner portal will assist with communication.

How
The AFRICAN FOREST CO is a distributed forestry model for carbon offsetting that deploys sustainable land management practices within customary law environments in Africa for conservation and improved livelihoods.

We define customary conservation as a process that operates within customary law, land uses, and exchange practices as sustainable land management and conservation component. The objective is to limit land degradation, future proof social-ecological systems, improve spatial development integration, and provide land-use alternatives by promoting conservation through sustainable forestry practices and access to potential carbon markets in Africa. By supporting access to customary law, landowners can balance commercial farming with forestry and conservation markets, either deploying sustainable land management practices that sell their produce to the market or participating in new carbon and conservation markets by promoting reforestation and conservation.

Participation may occur through corporate external investment structures or cooperative farm consolidation structures.

What will AFRICAN FOREST CO do?

By engaging a pilot proposal in Central and Eastern Ghana, where there are different customary law jurisdictions, and the impacts of agriculture farming, urban development and deforestation degrade biodiversity and the livelihoods of the citizenry, we can develop reforestation programmes that improve the health of both people and the environment by establishing;

Baseline Assessment for Conservation - baseline assessment of the select customary law jurisdictions currently protected by the Ghana Forestry Act is needed to improve the conservation status and secure species and habitats!
Maintain and restore forests and ecosystems - ecosystems and services are maintained and enhanced by establishing green infrastructure and restoring degraded ecosystems.
Achieve more sustainable agriculture and forestry - the conservation of species and habitats depending on or affected by agriculture and forestry, and the provision of their ecosystem services show measurable improvements

Distributed Forestation Model
Many smallholder farmers within African customary systems, particularly in Ghana, are succumbing to economic pressure and market forces to sell their land, and landowners are looking for additional income streams.
By creating a distributed forestation model that utilises a carbon offset market, landowners, communities, and farmers can participate in the carbon market and help arrest deforestation, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. Unchecked urban sprawl most often ensues from urban development, particularly from Greater Accra Metropolitan Area along the development corridor, is putting untold strain on customary law environments that are not designed for market pressures, but rather longstanding traditional agricultural practices.
Environmental benefits originating from planted trees and reforestation reduce soil erosion, encourage a return of biodiversity, and improve the water cycle.

The energy demand, both fuelwood and timber, is high where. The result is the destruction of natural forests for fuelwood and grazing land, causing significant environmental degradation in Ghana is high. Deploying a distributed plantation model within customary law jurisdiction is particularly promising in Ghana. By working within customary law and land practices, the distributed plantation model can alleviate biodiversity damage through reforestation for carbon stocks while apportioning a sustainable percentage of land for commercial forestry or farming that provides sustainable timber supplies. With lower risks of pest or disease because the trees are spread over larger areas and lower hurdles in land acquisition, particularly customary leasehold practices and gaining access to international carbon markets, distributed plantations have strong incentives for communities, farmers and landowners to join.

Goals
For the AFRICAN FOREST CO distribution model to progress and change perceptions amongst stakeholders, it would need to fill a market gap where there is a demand for sustainable carbon offsetting within the forestry of Ghana or the continent. The distributed forestry model requires careful spatial planning to aggregate efficiencies within the plantation systems to mitigate climate changes through carbon sequestration. The model's deployment needs to be matched by economic drivers within a carbon market integrated within institutional frameworks like REDD.

The model should allow for continuous monitoring of Ecosystems Services and Forests to ensure sustainable life cycles for carbon capture over time. The Governance and Management of restored ecosystems need to be built into the model where community well-being, public health and social inclusion is clearly integrated into the model as part of the sustainable development goals.

Biodiversity Benefits
In order for AFRICAN FOREST CO to sustainably manage the impacts of rapid urban development and agricultural practices that negatively impact the environment with land uses that contribute to the loss of biodiversity, forestry and conservation efforts, we need to develop a sustainable distributed working model that advances customary law land-uses, by;

Developing strategies for sustainable land-use practices and improved biodiversity conservation by deploying a distributed forestry model geared for new carbon offset markets.
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Researching carbon sequestration to fill key evidence gaps in forestry that define sustainable carbon market pathways.
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Ensure customary or community stakeholder engagement and carbon market participation.
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Strengthening the capacity of the AFRICAN FOREST CO advisory board to deliver high-quality research, advice, and carbon offset products.

Further, by examining the impacts of urban encroachment, illegal mining, oil palm and cocoa agriculture contributing to deforestation and negatively impacting local bio-diversity, we can assess land-use issues related to changing patterns of agricultural practices and urban development.
An analysis of forestry policy incentives and conservation investment by carbon offsetting, together with a spatial and ecological evaluation of urban corridor and development pressure on customary law land-use practices, will form part of broader strategies to reduce deforestation and increase forests by,
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Maintaining a forest canopy by planting carbon capture species, conservation & controlled cutting that restores forests on poorly managed farms through agroforestry.
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Increasing landowner incentives to practice bush fallow thereby increasing secondary forest that helps to expand secondary growth forests off-reserve
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Promoting land and tree tenure security and providing financial and extension support to rehabilitate local farmlands incentivises farmland restoration and reduces expansion into natural forests.
Increasing jobs and incomes outside agricultural cultivation reduces human pressure on land and develops skills and employment opportunities that enable shifting labour out of agricultural practices and into value-added carbon stock.

Related Sustainable Development Goals:

• Goal 1 No Poverty
• Goal 2 Zero Hunger
• Goal 6 Clean Water and Sanitation
• Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
• Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Goal 12 Sustainable Consumption and Production
• Goal 13 Climate Action
• Goal 14 Life Below Water
• Goal 15 Life on Land
• Goal 17 Partnerships for the Goals

We arrived at Mount Apra, the spiritual site of the Kingdom, and began our ascent. Hours later, I fell ill. It felt like a gut-wrenching pull at my stomach as we laid witness to the devastating deforestation of what is not an island of tropical forest fighting for its life against woodcutters. Ownership lines were not enough to keep these magical species from being cut at their base, ungrounding these sentinels from their duty as life-givers.

The Abidjan-Accra-Lagos coastal megaregion or urban corridor cuts through the heart of the Awutu Kingdom. With population growth, rapid urbanisation and the decline in fertile land, large land parcels for conventional forestry are becoming scarcer and more expensive. A lack of development planning and integration of the Kingdom into the National Spatial Development Framework at both a national policy and local planning level means that traditional stools continue to develop in an ad hoc manner that atomises opportunities for sustainable development.

The remaining forested areas within this region have been degraded through overuse as well as unplanned urban expansion resulting in increased pressure on these lands. The rate at which forests are being cleared for agriculture has increased steadily over time due to population growth and land scarcity along with inadequate resources for agricultural practices.

Queen Mother Naakye Dode Akabi Ivx Conservancy & Spatial Development Framework, Senya Beraku, Central, Ghana
Advisory Services

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