Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN)

Ghana

Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN)

LEAN is a four-year project funded by the European Union’s flagship Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) initiative that aims to conserve biodiversity, build climate resilience, and reduce emissions from land-use changes in the savannah, high forest, and transition zones of Ghana—and all while helping local farmers to improve their livelihoods. It will be implemented on the ground by a consortium of four local and international NGOs with expertise in these challenging fields: The Rainforest Alliance, World Vision Ghana, Tropenbos Ghana, and EcoCare Ghana.

The project seeks to address three structural barriers that have historically hindered efforts by governments, civil society organizations, and the private sector to halt land degradation and deforestation through the uptake of landscape approaches.

1. While most stakeholders are actively interested in conserving natural capital and helping to improve livelihoods, they only have the capacity and expertise to act within their direct sphere of influence or economic interest. The LEAN project will explore jurisdictional landscape approaches that cover the entirety of the project’s target landscapes.

2. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of landscape approaches in addressing sustainability challenges, there is still a lack of effective tools, resources, and incentives to drive aligned action at scale. That’s why the LEAN project seeks to work alongside all stakeholders to mobilize and effectively deploy resources and tools that will support targeted sustainability interventions.

3. While some multi-stakeholder governance structures have already been established in Ghana, there is as yet no landscape governance model suitable for scale-up. The LEAN project will work alongside key stakeholders in the different landscapes to establish participatory landscape management structures that will facilitate easy uptake of Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) technology and innovation.

Tropenbos Ghana and EcoCare Ghana are responsible for LEAN activities in the Forest-Savannah Transition zone.
 

Duration

2020 - 2024

Objective

To directly support national efforts to conserve biodiversity, improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers, build climate resilience, and reduce emissions from land-use changes across Ghana’s savannah, high forest, and transition zones.