Payment for Ecosystem Services provides incentives to individuals or communities that protect or manage natural resources in return for maintaining services such as clean water, forest cover, soil conservation and climate regulation.

The mechanism links conservation actions to agreed benefits and promotes fair sharing of gains from ecosystem protection.
The initiative is being coordinated by the Environmental Protection Authority, with financial and technical support from the World Resources Institute (WRI), as part of efforts to strengthen sustainable resource management and align conservation financing with national climate and biodiversity goals.

The technical working group is expected to guide the development of a national PES roadmap, address barriers to large scale restoration and benefit sharing and build stakeholder capacity.

In a speech delivered on behalf of Madam Suweibatu Adams, Chief Director of the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Mrs Sally Biney, Director of Environmental Assessment and Management at the EPA, said Ghana’s ecosystems remained under pressure from deforestation, land degradation, illegal mining and unplanned land use.
She said existing policies and laws alone were insufficient without practical incentives for communities and resource users.

“This is where Payment for Ecosystem Services becomes essential,” she said, adding that a national PES framework would help reward conservation efforts, mobilise climate finance and strengthen benefit sharing arrangements.

Mrs Biney urged stakeholders to work together to ensure the framework supported resource mobilisation and delivered benefits to those protecting Ghana’s landscapes.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Eric Lartey, Landscape Manager for the Ghana Cocoa Belt at WRI, said the organisation was supporting the Government to establish a PES framework to help close financing gaps in restoration and environmental conservation.

He said the absence of a national framework had limited investment in restoration.

“A national framework will provide the legal basis and put in place the governance structures and benefit sharing arrangements that will give investors the confidence to put money into restoration,” he said.

Mr Lartey said the technical working group would develop a roadmap to guide the framework’s development, with significant work expected over the coming year.

The framework is expected to help place value on ecosystem services, reward farmers, landowners and communities for conservation efforts, mobilise private and domestic climate finance, and support Ghana’s commitments under national climate targets and global biodiversity frameworks.