Cocoa-dependent communities in Ghana’s Wassa Amenfi West District are highly vulnerable to climate change and face increasing market exclusion due to new deforestation regulations. This initiative supports their resilience by establishing Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) as platforms to design and implement locally led climate adaptation strategies.
Cocoa farming communities in Wassa Amenfi West face a dangerous convergence of challenges: declining yields, deforestation, poor agricultural practices, and limited access to up-to-date climate and policy information. These vulnerabilities are compounded by new anti-deforestation regulations in major export markets, which require farmers to prove that their cocoa is deforestation-free. For forest-adjacent communities, who are closest to high-risk forest zones, this is an almost impossible task.
As a result, these communities risk exclusion from formal cocoa supply chains. In fact, for those reasons, the communities targeted by this project are already bypassed by a commercial partner working in the area. If left unaddressed, this exclusion could push farmers to abandon cocoa in favour of unsustainable alternatives like illegal mining or rubber plantations, which offer little in terms of climate resilience or income security.
Through this landscape initiative, we aim to strengthen the resilience of cocoa communities in Ghana’s Wassa Amenfi West District by supporting them to design and implement climate adaptation strategies tailored to their realities. These strategies combine technical action with community-led advocacy, ensuring that farmers are not only equipped to respond to climate risks, but also have a voice in shaping the policies and investments that affect their future.
Rikolto and Preferred by Nature provide training and technical support to community members, creating space for shared learning about climate change, its impacts, and practical solutions; and allowing them to develop and implement tailored, locally relevant climate strategies. We work through Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), which act as community platforms for planning and financing climate adaptation. Each VSLA includes thematic subgroups that focus on:
By encouraging collaboration among community members, local authorities, and the private sector, the project fosters inclusive decision-making around climate adaptation. Communities will use the data they collect to advocate for support from local duty-bearers, influencing district-level planning and investment in climate adaptation.
Furthermore, throughout the project, Rikolto and Preferred by Nature will develop a common strategy for support to cocoa smallholder farmers in Ghana, along with an action plan to secure funding for continued landscape-level interventions.
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Photos are courtesy of our colleague Ade Budi Kurniawan.
This project is made possible with the support of Wassa Amenfi West District Assembly, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture.
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