RESEARCH NEEDS FOR SUSTAINABLE COCOA PRODUCTION IN GHANA

Ghana has a unique tree tenure system, which can have a strong impact on any project in natural resource management. With regards to the resource use, land in Ghana is generally considered to be divided into reserve and off-reserve lands. The resources in the reserves have a higher level of protection from exploitation than the off-reserve lands. Off-reserve land thus includes private lands and covers around two-thirds of the total land area in Ghana (R.A. Asare, 2013).

The naturally occurring resources on the land, both public and private, are always vested in the government. This means that landowners do not automatically have the right to use resources such as minerals and timber from their land. The timber resources are managed by the Forestry Commission (Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources) and can therefore be extracted from the farm through concessions. Timber from trees that are planted on the farm (not naturally regenerated) belong to the farmer and can be freely used (R.A. Asare, 2013).

The absence of tree ownership from naturally occurring trees has often been mentioned as a driving factor for the shift to full-sun production systems (Ruf, 2011). The shade trees are sometimes perceived as negative for cocoa production (see ‘Removal of shade trees’) and are therefore not beneficial to keep on the farm if there are no clear environmental benefits and the timber of the trees is not available for the farmers to use. Therefore, illegal logging is a common phenomenon on cocoa farms. This is not only done to increase cocoa production, but also to prevent damage to the farm from logging companies and to ensure a part of the timber profit. Many of the naturally occurring trees on farms have thus been cut through legal (concessions*) or illegal logging.

Trees that the farmer has planted need to be registered with the government to document ownership. This way, the farmer can have access to the timber and other products that the tree provides and it cannot be logged by external parties. It appears, however, that many farmers are not aware of their rights and there is a strong need for awareness raising (Anon., personal communication). Even when farmers are aware, the process is very complex: It includes tracking of the farm, printing a map and providing a passport picture, all of which are difficult to do in many remote communities. Moreover, caretakers cannot register tree but need permission from the landowner. It is therefore unlikely that any farmer will go through this process by himself and there is a need to further simplify it (Anon., personal communication). 

Moreover, at the moment shade trees and cocoa farms are perceived as separate subjects (and are therefore managed by different government entities) but it could be better to create policies that see it as an integrated system. There are also concerns that keeping track of the registration system is not practically possible, especially since it takes a long time for the shade trees to mature and all this time the records have to be kept safe (Anon., personal communication).

* Note that, with regards to the concessions, farmers have more rights than is generally thought. It will often appear as if contractor acts without prior notice and hardly ever pays the compensation fee. However, in some cases this could be the result of miscommunication between the land owner and caretaker. For example, formally, the landowner has to give consent before the contractor can take the tree. However, since the farmer (caretaker) is often not the land owner, he or she is not informed about this agreement. Moreover, the price that is paid as compensation for the damage, though generally too low, is often paid to the landowner as well (Anon., personal communication).