Ghana has been selected alongside three African countries to benefit from Climate Investment Funds to secure national forests.

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are unique financing instruments designed to initiate transformational change towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

Recognizing that poverty reduction, economic growth and climate change must be addressed together, the CIF were agreed in 2008 to help blend CIF funding with funding from other MDBs and national and private sector development resources to leverage substantial additional funds.

The two CIF funds are Clean Technology Fund (CTF) , financing scaled-up demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies for significant greenhouse gas reductions within country investment plans, and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF)- financing targeted programs in developing countries to pilot new climate or sectoral approaches.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mike Hammah, in a message delivered on his behalf at the launch of Ghana's REDD+readiness programme in Accra, said his ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology as well as the Ministry of Finance had completed a forest investment plan which would be presented to the Forest investment Programme sub-committee in Washington, USA for approval in May, 2012.

'We are expecting between US$30 and $50 million for the Forest Investment Programme,' he said.

The minister hinted that Ghana intends to use the funds to scale up the pilot projects under the Forest Carbon partnership facility 'in addition to securing the integrity of our natural forests and wood lands.

Part of the funds would also go into enhancing the country's carbon stocks and providing climate change-smart agriculture and watershed protection.

The World Bank has provided a grant of $3.6 million towards the implementation of the Ghana Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation http://www.google.com.gh/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=REDD%2B&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CE8QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FReducing_Emissions_from_Deforestation_and_Forest_Degradation&ei=xdqeT5nOBMbN8QOx0pDxDg&usg=AFQjCNGVCdE8xlqjaSuNfTDjhGzr8q182w&cad=rja   (REDD+) progarmme and the nation's readiness for the project which is in three phases was launched in Accra.

According to Samuel Afari-Dartey, Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, 'Ghana is motivated by the commitment to join hands with our global partners to deal with the menace of climate change which poses a real risk to our development endeavour.'

Robert Bamfo, head of the Climate Change Unite of the Forestry Commission, said the REDD+ is a mechanism to provide policy approaches and positive incentives for activities geared towards mitigation of climate change impacts in developing countries.

He said the challenges hindering the implementation of the REDD+ include forest legislation and policy reforms to mitigate drivers of deforestation and degradation, weak institutional capacity and coordination, illegal logging and other forest illegalities, among others.

To achieve real targets, he called for predictable and sustainable financing to ensure verifiable emission reductions.

'Ghana is on course to vigorously pursue actions to implement its REED+ for enhanced mitigation of climate change but this would require more efforts from all stakeholders to explore ways of addressing the challenges posed by REDD+.'

By Emelia Ennin Abbey