Atebubu and Wiase Forest Landscape Restoration
Our impact
Project Profile
“This project is part of AstraZeneca’s AZ Forest, a global initiative to plant and maintain 200 million trees across six continents by 2030, in partnership with experts focused on landscape restoration. AZ Forest is part of our science-based Ambition Zero Carbon strategy, focused on delivering deep decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting planetary warming to 1.5°C, while building healthy and resilient communities and enhancing biodiversity and ecological resilience.”- AstraZeneca
Barbara Nel AstraZeneca’s former Country President for the African Cluster planted a tree to mark her field visit to the project site in 2022.
Project Aim
Through collaborative efforts with local communities, organizations, traditional leaders, the government, and other stakeholders, we established the project to address pressing local challenges. The project mission is clear: to tackle multiple issues such as land degradation, declining soil fertility, low agricultural productivity, deforestation, biodiversity loss, unemployment, and climate change.
We provide technical support with an aim of strengthening both community and ecological resilience through integrated nature-based solutions aimed at biodiversity conservation, landscape restoration, and the creation of green jobs and sustainable livelihoods, with a particular emphasis on empowering women and youth.
Our overarching goal is to achieve holistic restoration across various fronts:
Natural Forest Restoration: Restore ~10,000
hectares of degraded forest areas.
Agroforestry and Sustainable Agriculture: ~5,580 hectares under smallholder
farms to enhance food and fruit production.
By the end of 2026, we envision to have planted a total of 12.9 million trees:
- Natural forest restoration and regeneration: 11.6 million trees;
- Agroforestry: 1.3 million trees.
The initiatives within this project contribute towards multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the following:
Progress and Achievements
Between 2021–2024, we are working to restore approximately 8,481 hectares of degraded land, planting over 7,230,809 trees. In 2024, we accelerated our impact and achieved significant milestones. Over 3,500 hectares of degraded land were added to our restoration efforts, planted with over 3 million trees in natural forest restoration (mostly) and agroforestry. In total, 1,940 farmers from 29 communities are implementing agroforestry practices of which 823 of them were onboarded in 2024. We are growing resilience, one tree at a time!
Maintaining and restoring ecosystem integrity
The project seeks to address issues of land degradation, declining soil fertility, low agriculture productivity, deforestation, nature loss and climate change.
- 3,474 hectares under natural forest restoration
- 2,751,046 native trees planted for natural forest restoration
- 1,141 area under agroforestry practices
- 244,319 trees planted for agroforestry (189,540 fruit trees and 54,779 timber trees)
Ensuring inclusion and stakeholder engagement
All our operations and activities value the participation of farmers, local communities and other stakeholders as collaborators. We employ numerous stakeholder engagement approaches such multistakeholder platforms, awareness meetings in all implementing communities, trainings and workshops to enhance capacities, build relationships and alliances for collective action.
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Multi-stakeholder meetings held:
12 meetings including community members, farmers, local leaders and experts. - Number of participants involved in multi-stakeholder meetings: 304 people
Supporting green growth, jobs and socioeconomic development
Green growth is at the core of our project. The project facilitates and provides training, capacity building, and quality tree seedlings for agroforestry to improve soil health and fertility, impacting agriculture adaptation, food systems and livelihoods.
- 823 new farmers implementing agroforestry (fruits, cashews & timber trees)
- 6 new communities onboarded to establish agroforestry systems
- 512 farmers in agroforestry practices
- 894 community members trained in integrated wildfire management
- 1,589 community members trained in agroforestry, and bush fire management
- 29 lead farmers trained to facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning and monitoring
The year 2023 marked a significant milestone for the project, as it underwent expansion, thereby amplifying restoration goals and community outreach. Building upon the proven project concept and lessons learned, innovative approaches were integrated. The impact figures presented below supplement those achieved in 2021 and 2022:
Forest
Recovery
The project is restoring degraded natural forested land in a biodiverse area yet highly prone to bushfires. The restoration is enhancing climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, and overall ecosystem intergrity:
- 1,551 hectares under natural forest restoration
- 2,766,623 native trees planted for natural forest restoration
- 17 aquatic samples from different restoration zones analysed of e-DNA to facilitate biodiversity enhancement
- 6 native tree species planted in natural forest restoration.
Sustainable
Agriculture
Agriculture is the backbone of Ghana’s economy. The project invests in community-based agroforestry as a tool for triple benefits: Food, Biodiversity and Climate.
- 862 hectares under smallholder agroforestry
- 204,374 trees (mainly mangoes & cashew) planted for agroforestry & regenerative agriculture
- 728 smallholder farms under agroforestry practices
Social
Impact
From project initiation, local communities and stakeholders were placed at the very core. The project utilizes multiple tools such as offering technical support, training, peer-peer learning, skilling, and network building to co-implement and co-deliver the project for people and nature.
- 303 farmers participated in 10 agroforestry training sessions
- 684 newly engaged farmers from 10 communities implementing agroforestry
- 1,185 farmers reached in 37 community forest restoration outreach and sensitization sessions
- 1,255 participants in 20 bushfire prevention and management training sessions
- 180 Participants in 4 multi-stakeholder platform meetings
- 88 participants in a 3-day carbon co-benefits consultation workshop.
The initial two years were pivotal for collaborative design, proof of concept, and the cultivation of social alliances and relationships for project implementation. Activities included stakeholder workshops, baseline studies, community mobilisation, training, pilots and actual tree planting, all aimed at generating landscape-level and community impacts.
Forest
Recovery
The project is restoring degraded natural forested land in a biodiverse area yet highly prone to bushfires. The restoration is enhancing climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, and overall ecosystem intergrity:
- 595 hectares under natural forest restorationo
- 1 million trees (pioneer & native species) planted for natural forest restoration
- 3 pioneer species: Ceiba, Senya & Dawa dawa piloted for improvement of nursery bed management and silvicultural techniques.
Sustainable Agriculture
Agriculture is the backbone of Ghana’s economy. The project invests in community-based agroforestry as a tool for triple benefits: Food, Biodiversity and Climate.
- 820 hectares under smallholder agroforestry
- 222,000 trees (mainly mangoes & cashews) planted for agroforestry
- 475 smallholder farms under agroforestry practices.
Social
Impact
From project initiation, local communities and stakeholders were placed at the very core. The project utilizes multiple tools such as offering technical support, training, peer-peer learning, skilling, and network building to co-implement and co-deliver the project for people and nature.
- 240 households engaged in baseline assessments
- 250 farmers participated in 11 agroforestry training sessions
- 450 farmers implementing agroforestry
- 24 community forest restoration outreach and sensitization sessions
- 697 participants in 8 bush fire bushfire prevention and management training sessions
- 152 Participants in 4 multi-stakeholder platform meetings.
Projections for 2025
Planting ~3,802 hectares f degraded forest with native trees.
Supporting farmers to plant ~1,887 ha of agroforestry trees.
Enhance tree survival, biodiversity impact and strengthen farmer training.
The map below shows the location of the communities engaged in agroforestry and regenerative agriculture for the year 2021-2024.
Partnerships
Meaningful collaboration and partnerships are at the heart of our approach to effective forest landscape restoration and climate adaptation initiatives. We prioritize and value collaboration, recognizing it as a key ingredient for success. Our approach focuses on fostering strong relationships, community ownership and building social alliances, which have been instrumental in our achievements and lessons learned to date. Central to this effort are the Atebubu and Wiase farmers, who serve as the main stakeholders in our Living Lab.
In addition to the project partners below, we also collaborate closely with:
- Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA)
- CSIR ‐ Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)
- CSIR - Crops Research Institute (CRI)
- The Ghana National Fire Service
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
CBA and NGPTA visit to FORIG tree nursery beds
Project Partners:
PROJECT IS FUNDED BY:
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