Proforest Africa Marks a Decade of Positive Impact on People, Nature and Climate

 Story Reported By Gideon Kotey 

Accra, Ghana - Nov 23, 2023 - Proforest Africa celebrates 10 years of transformative contributions to responsible sourcing and production, promoting sustainable landscapes and facilitating multistakeholder engagements. Proforest works with companies, private sector, governments, NGOs, communities among others in various sectors including cocoa, oil palm, sugar, rubber, shea, coffee, timber, seaweed to deliver on their commitments to people, nature and climate. 

"It is exciting to know that the work we have done has brought reforms, from policy change to strengthening capacity and protecting natural resources, in the responsible sourcing and production of agricultural commodities," said Abraham Baffoe, Africa and global Director of Proforest. "But it is also challenging because our quality delivery of work has met high expectations for ourselves as Proforest, and we need to keep to that in the way we deliver our work," he continued. 

Working beyond supply chains to deal with systemic problems across environmental and social issues, Proforest's work in production landscapes is essential in Africa where most of the agricultural production is done by smallholders. For example, supporting landscape initiatives in Asunafo Asutifi, which produces about 10% of Ghana's cocoa and the San Pedro landscape in Côte d'Ivoire, helps in limiting deforestation, addressing land-related disputes and displacement caused to families and communities over the years, and promoting community ownership and inclusion in land governance. 

Recognising the need to bring all key stakeholders together to agree on standards to ensure palm oil sector in Africa provides job for local community and protect the remaining forests Proforest facilitated the signing of the Africa Palm Oil Initiative in 2016 and the expansion to the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative (ASCI) in 2022. Ten countries in West and Central Africa have defined a shared approach to responsible production in a way that improves livelihoods and protects nature, including forests. 

The ASCI principles are also geared towards addressing deforestation from our supply chains, have a partnership with producer countries and work with them to address social issues. The ASCI has demonstrated how policy can create the enabling environment for change. Notable achievements include the launch of the Tree Crops Development Authority in Ghana, a nev Forest law and Forestry Commission in Edo State, Nigeria and a Ministerial Order to move a palm oil production from forested land to savannah in the Republic of Congo.

Respecting human rights and promoting gender and social inclusion cuts across all our programmes. In Liberia, Proforest worked with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to produce an animation that explains the importance of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to local communities. Also in Liberia, we assessed the policy environment within key value chains to create awareness for stakeholders to understand women's rights in agriculture. 

Empowering stakeholders through capacity building and training remains core to the work we do. Proforest Africa has led training of practitioners across government and private sector to support local implementation and ownership of responsible production and sourcing. In the last decade, Proforest has led in the delivery of many certified courses for the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Lead Auditor course and HCV-HCSA (High Conservation Value- High Carbon Stock Approach) with participants from across the continent. 

The Africa Practitioners Network offered training, practical experience and mentoring to participants to implement and monitor sustainability at the local level. 

Proforest will continue its collaborative work with governments, companies and civil society organisations and support them to implement sustainable agricultural production and sourcing in commodities like cocoa, timber, palm oil, coffee, shea and rubber. 

"As we commemorate this occasion with pride and joy, we are also reflecting on a decade of growth, success, and the collective dedication from our staff, clients and other stakeholders," said Mr. Baffoe. 

"We will work to bring inclusion at all levels and continue to harness possible collaborations with governments, the private sector and communities to deliver impact at scale," he concluded. END 

Source: www.truthtvnews.com/ www.proforest.net

Editor: Nii Amon