Category: Ghana

Mangrove can play a crucial role in the storage of carbon and Ghana focuses on this particular solution through Blue Deal partnership. The Songor mangrove project in the lower Volta basin in Ghana, continues to make steps in addressing climate change and improving local livelihoods. A successful workshop was held in October 2024, and the project has seen further developments since.

A successful stakeholder meeting was held in Ghana, to encourage support for integrating citizen science into the ongoing mangrove restoration efforts. The meeting brought together key local stakeholders, including representatives from the district assembly, the Ghana Wildlife Division, the Volta Resilient Foundation, and teachers from two schools in the neighbourhood. The discussions focused on both the opportunities and challenges of implementing citizen science in the restoration project. The active participation and insightful contributions of attendees illustrates how the community is committed to manage and care for the environment.  

Engaging future generations: school visits on mangrove conservation

The following day, the team of Blue Deal Ghana visited two schools to introduce students to the benefits and importance of mangrove ecosystems. These students play a crucial role in the citizen science initiative. This visit is the beginning of a series of educational engagements to deepen their involvement. During the sessions, students learned about the various benefits of mangroves, including: 

• Coastal protection – Acting as a natural barrier against storms and erosion. 

• Air & water quality – Enhancing environmental health by filtering pollutants. 

• Biodiversity – Providing habitat for diverse marine and bird species. 

• Carbon storage – Helping combat climate change by withdrawing carbon from the air. 

• Livelihoods – Supporting local fisheries and economic activities. 

The enthusiasm and curiosity of the students highlighted the importance of continued education and engagement in mangrove conservation. More visits and interactive sessions will follow, to ensure sustained learning and participation in the citizen science programme. 

The Songor mangrove project is an inspiring example of sustainable development in the region, with the focus on environmental and economic benefits through carbon credits and community involvement. 

The Songor mangrove project in the lower Volta basin in Ghana has taken a significant step forward in addressing both climate change and local livelihood challenges. A Blue Deal workshop in October brought key stakeholders together to explore the potential for expansion of the mangrove coverage in combination with the generation of carbon credits.

These stakeholders included the Blue Deal team Ghana, Water Resource Commission (WRC), Forestry Commission, District Assemblies, and Treevive/Face the Future.

Tap into the voluntary carbon market

The focus of the day was to identify key areas for mangrove restoration andexpansion, and to understand the organisational frameworks needed to leverage carbon storage for both environmental and economic benefits. Mangroves can play a role in storing carbon, and through the Blue Deal initiative, Ghana aims to tap into the voluntary carbon market by expanding mangrove acreage.

Benefits of carbon credit system

Treevive presented the carbon credit system, where carbon emitters pay off their emissions, and funds are used to support mangrove planting and maintenance. Although the start-up phase takes up to 8 years, the project promises long-term benefits up to 40 years, including alternative livelihoods, coastal protection and improved water quality.

Risks for the project

Another part of the workshop was about defining risks in the future project, so a risk matrix was made. A key challenge discussed was land fragmentation in the region, where land is owned by communities, private individuals, or leased, complicating ownership and management of the mangroves. Stakeholders agreed that a trust fund would help manage carbon credits and ensure fair distribution of funds. The initiative has stirred up optimism for creating a sustainable future in the region, with a focus on collaboration, community involvement, and a long-term strategy for mangrove restoration.

Field visits

During the Blue Deal work visit, several field visits took place in the Songor area to assess the suitability for mangrove restoration. Field visits have also taken place in the Keta area that may be included in the assessment.

Prefeasibility study

Treevive/Face the Future has begun assessing the prefeasibility study for the Songor restoration project, building on previous studies, as well as insights gained from this week’s field visits and workshops.

In a bid to tackle climate change and its global impacts, the Paramount chief of the Bongo Traditional Area in the Upper East Region in Ghana, Naba Salifu Atamale Lemyarim, appointed 25 environmental chiefs. The event was organised by Water Resources Commission together with the Blue Deal Ghana.

The environmental chiefs have been tasked with the responsibility to sensitise people within their catchment areas on the dangers of tree felling, and also to encourage the planting of more trees.

Failed measures and the need for conservation

The coordinator for Blue Deal Ghana, Jaap Bos, highlighted the urgency of the situation, attributing current weather patterns in the Northern, Upper East and North East Regions in Ghana to failed measures. He also stressed the need for conservation efforts, including forest reserves and tree planting.

Unsustainable harvesting of shea and dawadawa trees

The board chairman for White Volta Basin, Dr. Sylvester Darko, commended the chiefs for accepting the challenge in the fight to save the environment. He warned of the changing cultural, economic, social, and political practices influenced by climate change. He also emphasised the detrimental effects on economic activities, such as the unsustainable harvesting of shea and dawadawa trees for charcoal production, which adversely impacts the environment negatively.

“As we all know climate variability has come to stay with us and its effect has been felt especially on our cash trees. The dawadawa and shea trees do not produce fruits as well as before. It’s high time we institute measures in our communities to tackle the situation”, he added.

Traditional authorities to combat climate change

The environmental chiefs concept began in November 2023, when the Blue Deal team engaged traditional authorities in the Bongo Traditional Area on the need to build governance structures to combat climate change. The Blue Deal suggested that the traditional authority should be given the power to sanction and lead their communities towards a safe environment.

This article has been reposted from GBC Ghana. Read the complete article.

In February, the Dutch Blue Deal team organised a Culture Day together with their Ghanaian Blue Deal colleagues. The main goal was to understand each other’s work cultures better. This ultimately helps in a more effective cross-cultural collaboration.

Since 2019, the Dutch Blue Deal team has worked together with several colleagues from the Ghanaian Water Resources Commission. During that time they got to know each other well. In the workplace, but also personally, outside of office hours. This has already created interesting situations and challenges in their cross-cultural communication. This could have something to do with cultural differences.

How well do we really know each other’s cultures?

So the Dutch and Ghanaian colleagues took the time to ask themselves the questions: how well do we really know each other’s cultures? Do we know the mutual differences and similarities and how can we use them as advantages in our collaboration? During the recent working visit in February, all Blue Deal members travelled to Accra to create a Culture Map during a special Culture Day. We focused on having more in-depth conversations about each other’s cultures by discussing perceptions, cultural differences, and expectations, to improve certain work situations. Because your culture affects you as a person, but also how you act in the workplace and how you work together.

Culture Map

The common thread of this day was the Culture Map. This is a method by Erin Meyer that provides more insight into a work culture by evaluating a work culture on 8 scales. Consider, for example, the way of communicating: is it very direct and clear in your culture or indirect and do you have to read between the lines in a conversation? Or what about the power distance: is there always a strict hierarchy in the workplace or can you approach the boss directly? These are all questions that started the conversations. Based on concrete examples from the collaboration, they learned more about each other’s doings and actions. The result was a Culture Map of the Netherlands and Ghana in which differences and similarities are clearly mapped out on the scales.

Insight and understanding

The Culture Day has given the team more insight and understanding of each other’s culture, but it has certainly strengthened their bond. They now know better where someone else is coming from and also understand their own actions and frustrations better from time to time. This ultimately helps in a more effective collaboration. Some examples of the conclusions of the Culture Day:

• In terms of communication style the 2 cultures stand quite far apart from each other on the scale. In the Netherlands, people are very direct, whereas Ghana has a more implicit style of communication. Working in such a cross-cultural team, it would be useful to make more explicit recaps and summaries of meetings to catch any misunderstandings or confusions.
• When it comes to making progress in the Blue Deal programme, the scale of ‘Deciding’ in the Culture Map is also an interesting one to highlight. The 2 cultures also stand quite far apart from each other on this scale, but there are some easy tips to make the cross-cultural collaboration more effective. For example, it starts with awareness about the differences and together they could try to discuss and decide upon a decision-making method and work that out explicitly. Later, when big decisions must be made, they can revisit the decision-making process to make sure it is generally understood and accepted.
• In the Netherlands we are keen on being tightly organised and would very much like to create a detailed programme for a work visit, full of appointments. But in the Ghanaian work culture it is very normal to draw up an outline for a programme with main goals and also leave sufficient room for strengthening the personal relationship. The latter definitely has its advantages. This gave the team the insight that they will now try to make the programme of the next work visit somewhat based on Dutch work culture, but mainly on the basis of Ghanaian work culture.

Recommendation for other Blue Deal teams

It is valuable to take a moment to look at your own culture and others. Because you normally see the world from our own cultural perspective. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that another culture might do things differently. But when you start to identify what is typical in your own culture, but different in others, then you can begin to open a dialogue of sharing, learning, and, ultimately, understanding. So take time to talk about each other’s work cultures and create your own Culture Map.

The Blue Deal also provides a mandatory training ‘Working with Other Cultures’ for Dutch experts who travel abroad for the Blue Deal. Read a report on one of these trainings.

From 4 to 11 November a Blue Deal work visit took place in Ghana. The Dutch team met with their Ghanaian partners in several parts of Ghana, both in the North and the South. We talked about the current projects, saw the progress during field visits, and made plans for 2024 and further on.

In Ghana the Dutch Blue Deal team works in the North in the White Volta Basin and in the South in the Lower Volta Delta on various projects concerning governance, reforestation, planning, water safety and water quality.

Transboundary collaboration with Burkina Faso

During the visit in November the team in the North of Ghana had several meetings about the governance structure of the water resources management. For example, a delegation of the Blue Deal Burkina Faso team also joined the Ghana visit and talked about transboundary collaboration. The purpose of this meeting was to explore how to enhance the transboundary cooperation between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Since Ghana and Burkina Faso share the same water basin, it is imperative to exchange knowledge and to adapt the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plans to one another. It was decided that a plan will be made to achieve better and structural cooperation. The first action is to set up a monthly online meeting between Ghana and Burkina Faso.

Reforestation

Also in the North there was a field visit to the Bongo Reforestation project. This project is implemented by Tree Aid Ghana and funded by Trees for All. The proposal for funding for this project was supported and facilitated by the Blue Deal team and the Water Resources Commission. This is to rehabilitate degraded areas in the catchment of the Yaragatanga River which feeds the Vea Reservoir and protects the Buffer Zones of its tributaries. The Blue Deal team visited a reforestation site and spoke with the community members about the challenges they face in keeping the planted trees alive. Challenges mainly concern water shortage in the dry season and cattle and other livestock who eat the young trees. Fortunately, many trees that were planted 2 years ago have already grown taller than some of the tall Dutch Blue Deal members.

Flooding in the South

In the South of Ghana the recent flooding in the Lower Volta Delta had an effect on the programme for the visit in November. Major damage was done to the livelihoods around the Volta River, but fortunately no human lives were lost. Since the area is still flooded and local stakeholders are focussed on offering help to the local communities, many of the meetings took place in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The Blue Deal team discussed the flooding with the Water Resources Commission and other relevant stakeholders, such as the involved Ministries, in relation to the current plans that we work on together. The saying ‘never waste a good crisis’ is tough, but during a crisis we often become resourceful and see opportunities that we would otherwise miss. This situation emphasises the need of better integrated water management and the set-up of a Delta program. During the visit in November important steps were taken to set-up the Delta programme and start with the pilot project of the Sand Motor, a nature-based solution that has to help against flooding from the sea.

Difficulties with dams

Next to this a part of the Dutch Blue Deal team in the South visited 2 dam sites, the Owabi Dam and Barakesi Dam, together with local stakeholders. Here we investigated whether or not a pre-feasibility study would be beneficial for 1 of these dams. On site, we discussed the problems the stakeholders are experiencing in regards to the dams themselves (structure) and the catchment of the reservoirs. For example for the Owabi Dam, there are serious worries about the safety of the dam and silting is a big issue. For the Barekesi Dam, mining and deforestation for agricultural purposes (encroachment) are the most pressing issues. Together with the Ghanaian partners the Dutch team will further explore for which dam Integrated Water Resources Management might be a good process to start solving the issues.