Carbon, biodiversity and
cocoa farming in Ghana
Professor Ken Norris
Amy Wade
Centre for Agri-Environmental Research
The University of Reading
Talk Outline
• Recent work
– Carbon and biodiversity in
forest and agro-forestry
ecosystems
– Land management strategies
for cocoa and carbon
– The large-scale Carbon value of
cocoa farming systems
• Cocoa-carbon possibilities
Cocoa-biodiversity project
Forest Reserve (Atewa)
Traditional, shade cocoa
Intensive, unshaded cocoa
Project details
• Eastern Region
• Integrated data collection
– farm productivity and
management
– biodiversity
– soil nutrient status (health)
– carbon stores
Biodiversity value
Low
Production intensity
High
Cocoa-carbon
• Carbon stores in relation to land-use
• Land management strategies
• The potential large-scale value of cocoa-carbon in
Ghana
Carbon stores and land-use
P<0.0001
P<0.05
250
200
Carbon Mg/ha
Other crops
P<0.01
Cocoa
150
Soil
Forest Trees
100
50
0
Forest
Shaded
Unshaded
Pods per plot
100
Productivity
50
0
2
3
4
5
6
Management Intensity Index
80
Forest trees
200
100
Carbon Mg ha-1
Carbon Mg ha-1
300
Soil
60
40
20
0
0
2
3
4
5
6
Management Intensity Index
2
3
4
5
6
Management Intensity Index
Land management strategies
Shaded cocoa
1ha
160Mg C
Unshaded cocoa
Forest
0.58ha
0.42ha
136Mg C
Total carbon storage Gg
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Current land use
Cocoa carbon
If all cocoa
intensified
Large-scale cocoa-carbon issues
• Carbon stores in forest and cocoa farming systems in
Ghana are roughly equivalent
• Intensifying cocoa production would reduce the
carbon stores in cocoa farming systems by about 50%
Cocoa-carbon possibilities
Afforestation/Reforestation
1. Restoring shaded cocoa farming systems to former
or abandoned cocoa growing areas
2. Increasing tree cover in intensive cocoa growing
areas
Cocoa-carbon possibilities
REDD
1. Avoided deforestation caused by conversion to
cocoa farming
2. Avoided forest degradation caused by the
intensification of cocoa farming
Concluding Remarks
• Cocoa and carbon in
Ghana are inextricably
linked
– Cocoa farming systems are
an important carbon store
– Changes in cocoa farming
systems could significantly
increase or reduce GHG
emissions
• Significant opportunity to
develop cocoa-carbon
projects in Ghana