The documenting the impact of artisanal illegal small-scale artisanal gold mining and land clearing activities on cocoa cultivation is joint research project between the College of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR-FORIG).

This research seeks to assess whether improvements in gender equality conditions support enhanced climate resilience of cacao farming-dependent households. Gender in-equality is define in this context as systematic gaps in access to livelihood resources between gender groups commonly underpinned by social norms defining roles in farming and farming decision-making.

Climate change has direct impacts on farming. These impacts ripple off-farm to also affect the wellbeing of non-farming individuals and families whose livelihoods depend on harvested yields and their co-products. With drought as an expression of a changing climate and cocoa value-added chains as a mechanism linking ecological and social systems

Aubregrinia taiensis, is critically endangered tree species with very restricted distribution in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire. CSIR-FORIG has been working collaboratively with partners in both countries since 2019, with the support of BGCI and funding from Foundation Franklinia, to save the tree from the brink of extinction

The project is aimed at supporting conservations actions, and ensuring proper coordination between all actors involved in the implementation of the Conservation Action Plan (CAP) for Ghana’s threatened trees. The CAP was a key output of a National-Level Stakeholders Workshop on Threatened Tree Conservation held in Ghana in October, 2022.