We are off: Research on equitable Nature Recovery in Southern Ghana

We are off: Research on equitable Nature Recovery in Southern Ghana
By Eric Mensah Kumeh

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery (LCNR), together with its Ghanaian partner, the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC), have launched a new programme of research in the Guinea High Forest region of southeastern Ghana.

The programme was launched with an interdisciplinary field visit to the Kwahu Landscape Restoration Project (KLRP). The KLRP aims to deliver nature recovery through green finance, cutting-edge science and participatory governance, all goals which align well with those of LCNR and make the KLRP an ideal case study landscape. The KLRP’s core landscape interventions include cocoa agroforestry, forest restoration and rewilding. Beyond using the LCNR-NCRC programme launch to develop a stronger understanding of the project, the LCNR team led by Yadvinder Malhi  and Constance McDermott, used the opportunity to provide critical insights into how the NCRC could work together to help strengthen the KLRP project, while generating cutting-edge insights into ecological and social aspects of nature recovery more generally.

LCNR’s commitment to the partnership was buoyed by the participation of our ecologists who conducted strategic drone flights (LIDAR and multi-spectral sensors) to generate information on vegetation to support the refinement of KLRP and serve as a baseline for future monitoring of impacts. The sustained engagement of our social science team laid a critical foundation for effective data collection on the ‘dronescapes’. The team has also been instrumental in observing and providing essential inputs towards Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes required to effectively set up the KLRP and improve the inclusion of local communities’ needs and concerns.

The launch was also instrumental in strengthening connections between various organisations involved in the project, including exploring strategic areas for collaboration. The LCNR team will produce an initial analysis of the dronescapes while finetuning multiple aspects of the research agenda in the Kwahu Landscape during the first quarter of the year. Further fieldwork is envisaged for the second quarter of 2024 and beyond.