- Afdb-Backed Forest Programme Restores Livelihoods Across Ghana, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire
The African Development Bank has highlighted the impact of the West Africa Forest Investment Program, describing it as an example of how climate finance can protect forests, restore degraded land and improve livelihoods for rural communities.
The programme is being implemented in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where forest loss, land degradation and climate change continue to threaten farming communities, biodiversity and long-term food security.
According to the Bank, the initiative is helping countries move beyond forest protection as a conservation issue and treat it as part of a broader development agenda involving jobs, agriculture, income generation and climate resilience.
The programme has already supported 42,652 hectares under sustainable forest management and 11,686 hectares under climate-smart agroforestry systems. It has also trained 13,516 people through its interventions.
These results matter because forests play a direct role in economic life across West Africa. They support farming, protect water sources, regulate local climates and provide income for households that depend on forest products, agriculture and rural enterprises.
But across the region, forests are under pressure from illegal logging, agricultural expansion, bushfires, mining, population growth and unsustainable land use.
The West Africa Forest Investment Program is designed to respond to these pressures by helping communities manage forest resources more sustainably while also improving their economic opportunities.
This balance is important. Forest protection often fails when communities are asked to preserve natural resources without having alternative sources of income. The AfDB-backed programme recognises that people living near forests must be part of the solution.
By supporting climate-smart agroforestry, the initiative allows farmers to combine tree planting with crop production. This can help restore soil fertility, improve yields, reduce erosion and make farms more resilient to drought and changing rainfall patterns.
For Ghana, the programme is particularly relevant because of the country’s cocoa-forest landscape. Deforestation linked to farming, illegal mining and timber extraction has created major environmental and economic risks.
Protecting forest areas while supporting farmers with better practices is now central to Ghana’s climate and agricultural policy.
In Côte d’Ivoire, which has also faced severe forest loss over the years, the programme supports efforts to restore degraded areas and promote more sustainable land use.
In Burkina Faso, where dryland forests and rural communities are highly exposed to climate stress, the programme helps strengthen resilience and improve natural resource management.
The wider lesson is that forest investment is not only about trees. It is also about people.
When rural communities are trained, supported and given practical alternatives, forest protection becomes more realistic. Farmers can improve their production systems. Local groups can participate in forest management. Young people and women can gain access to new livelihood opportunities.
The programme also supports the goals of the Forest Investment Program of the Climate Investment Funds, which was created to help developing countries reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
For African countries, such programmes are becoming more important as climate change intensifies. Rising temperatures, irregular rainfall and land degradation are already affecting food production and rural incomes.
If forests continue to disappear, the region will face greater risks to agriculture, water security, biodiversity and community stability.
The AfDB’s focus on Ghana, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire therefore shows the need for regional solutions. Forest loss does not respect borders, and climate impacts often affect entire ecological zones across neighbouring countries.
The programme also shows how climate finance can be used in practical ways. Instead of funding only policy documents or broad climate pledges, it supports land restoration, training, agroforestry and community-level action.
For policymakers, the message is clear: forest protection must be linked to rural development.
Communities are more likely to protect forests when they see clear benefits in the form of income, better farms, improved resilience and stronger local institutions.
For development partners, the programme offers a model for combining climate action with poverty reduction.
For Ghana and its neighbours, the challenge now is to scale up what is working. That means more investment in community forest management, agroforestry, farmer training, alternative livelihoods and enforcement against activities that destroy forests.
The West Africa Forest Investment Program is still only one part of a much larger response needed across the region.
But its early results show that when forest protection is designed around people, not only land, it can support both climate resilience and economic development.
The bigger point is simple: West Africa cannot protect its future without protecting its forests.
And it cannot protect its forests without supporting the people who depend on them.
