2019-20 Report: Rainforest Alliance

Donation: $50,000

Our donation helped the Rainforest Alliance (RA) expand their reforestation program in Ghana. Over the past year, RA helped farmers increase their cocoa capacity (without the typical deforestation) through trainings and workshops, established five tree nursery sites, and produced over 84,000 seedlings — double their original projection.

RA focuses on the deforestation in Ghana, which is mainly caused by unsustainable cocoa production. They help conserve the cocoa forest landscape, increase the cocoa yield, and sustain the farming livelihoods of communities by teaching climate-smart practices and empowering the farmers to be responsible for managing the landscapes and restoring deforested areas.

In early 2020, RA identified 4,000 hectares of land for restoration under threat from farm expansion, climate change, and tourism; established four nursery sites; produced 60,000 seedlings; provided 2,584 farmers with climate-smart tools and techniques; and trained 44 members of local Landscape Management Boards — half of them women — in nursery management.

By early summer, RA established a fifth nursery site and germinated an additional 20,000 seedlings to support the Ghana Cocoa Board’s goal of replacing all cocoa trees infected with disease. COVID-19 restricted their ability to hold trainings, as the government partially locked down this area. But RA communicated using online technologies (if internet access was available) or broadcasting audio recordings over the public speaker systems in many villages and rural areas.