Coastal Sustainable Landscapes Project Quarterly Report Third Quarter – April 1st to June 30th, 2015

The project aims to improve carbon sequestration, forest management, and livelihoods in the region by strengthening community-based natural resource management and monitoring. The CSLP focuses on the coastal landscape, including mangroves, other wetlands, and forests and agricultural areas, all of which are managed under a diversity of land tenure regimes. The project's primary activities are focused on community-level interactions that work to achieve low emissions development goals. One key component of the CSLP strategy is the application of a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model, a social entrepreneurial concept that has already enjoyed much success in Ghana. The VSLA model is employed by the CSLP as a novel vehicle to help encourage and promote activities that maintain and increase forest cover with native and existing tree species. The CSLP is being implemented in communities where there is an existing and functioning community governance body, such as Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) or similar entities. This history of community collaboration provides an entry point to develop a community's capacity to launch their own VSLA and oversee loans to community members. The project's activities are being established within communities where there is an existing and functioning community governance body. The CSLP is contributing to increased employment, improved livelihoods, better land management of existing natural resources, increased soil fertility, and increased carbon stocks. Improved land management and livelihoods will reduce pressure on intact areas of forest reserve, protecting their biodiversity, allowing for ecotourism opportunities, and enhancing the value of other ecosystem services within the value chains of the local communities. The project's overall long-term impact is aimed at promoting low emissions development in Ghana's Western Region by strengthening community-based natural resource management and monitoring. The CSLP is responding to the USAID Sustainable Landscapes (SL) Results Framework by focusing on Strategic Objective 1: Accelerate the transition to low emission development through investments in clean energy and sustainable landscapes. The CSLP is operating in the six coastal districts of Ghana's Western Region, which is one of the fastest growing areas of the country and in all of West Africa. Land use pressures are enormous, especially in the high population centers of the region's six coastal districts. Demand for conversion of forests to agriculture, cash crop development, harvesting of mangroves and other forest species for charcoal and timber production, artisanal mining, and urban development all pose significant threats to forests in this region. The project's geographic area stretches from the Cote d'Ivoire border eastward through the Greater Amanzule wetlands complex, Cape Three Points, the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Area (STMA), and east to the Central Region border. The CSLP is applying the VSLA concept to provide incentives for farmers and landowners to incorporate more indigenous species of trees on their land while helping provide seed funding for a revolving funding mechanism to work towards improved livelihoods. The project's activities are being established within communities where there is an existing and functioning community governance body, such as CREMAs or similar entities. This history of community collaboration provides an entry point to develop a community's capacity to launch their own VSLA and oversee loans to community members. The CSLP is applying the VSLA concept to provide incentives for farmers and landowners to incorporate more indigenous species of trees on their land while helping provide seed funding for a revolving funding mechanism to work towards improved livelihoods. The CSLP has made significant progress in the third quarter of 2015, with activities mostly under IR 1 and IR 2, and more limited activity under IR 3 due to the resignation of the Environmental Services and Spatial Planning Specialist during the early weeks of the quarter in April 2015. The project has undertaken several events and activities, including field demonstration training and monitoring for 93 farmers in climate smart vegetable production, and beekeeping trainings for 30 farmers. The project has also made progress in the following areas: greenhouse gas emissions reduction, hectares of biological significance and/or natural resources under improved NRM, person hours of training in natural resources management and/or biodiversity conservation, and number of people with increased economic benefits derived from sustainable NRM and conservation. The project has also improved the capacity of institutions to address climate change issues and provided training in climate change.