Agricultural and Forest Land Use Potential for REDD+ among Smallholder Land Users in Rural Ghana

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation with other benefits (REDD+) mechanism is supposed to address the reversal of forest-based land degradation, conservation of existing carbon stocks, and enhancement of carbon sequestration. The Bosomtwe District is predominantly agrarian with potentials for climate change mitigation through REDD+ mechanism among smallholder farmers. The limited knowledge and practices of this strategy among farmers are limiting potentials of mitigating climate change. This paper assesses the REDD+ potentials among smallholder farmers in the district. Using a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative design, 152 farmer-respondents were purposively sampled and interviewed, using snowballing method from 12 communities. Quantitative data gathered were subjected to the tools of contingency and frequencies analysis, embedded in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v.16. The qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Results indicate that respondents have knowledge of REDD+ but not the intended benefit sharing regimes that can accrue to the smallholder farmers. Farmers’ willingness to practice REDD+ will be based on the motivation and incentive potentials of the strategies. The Forestry Services Division should promote the practice of REDD+ among smallholder farmers through education, to whip and sustain interest in the strategy.