Beyond Beans Photo by Beyond Beans
Natural forests capture carbon dioxide, increase biodiversity, and improve soil quality, providing ecosystem services that entire communities benefit from. For Ghana’s 800,000 cocoa-farming households however, the country’s high risk of deforestation brings with it the threat of lower, less reliable rainfall and rising temperatures that could damage cocoa trees, reducing yields and household incomes.
At the end of last year, the public sector, private sector and civil society organization partners jointly began the inception phase of a new project, working towards a climate-smart cocoa sector where forests and natural ecosystems can thrive alongside sustainable cocoa production. This project is called ASASE, which stands for Accessible Soils and Sustainable Environments and also means “land” in the local Ghanaian language Twi. Ove