10 Ghanaian institutions get GH¢7m Canadian grant to restore degraded forests, train expertise

Ten public and private sector institutions in Ghana are accessing a GH¢7 million grant to strengthen technical expertise to tackle environmental degradation and empower women along the forest value chain.

The five-year partnership with Lakehead University in Canada will include training 36 Ghanaians in wood science and technology, remote sensing and geomatics, ecological remediation and forestry.

The aim is to open more local avenues for promoting sustainable natural resource management.

The public universities benefiting from the partnership include the University of Ghana, KNUST, University of Cape Coast, UDS, the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) and the CSIR College of Science and Technology.

Other beneficiary institutions are the Forestry Commission, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's FORIG, Samartex Timber and Plywood Company and the Charcoal Chamber of Commerce – Ghana.

The funding, which is part of the Global Affairs Canada BCDI 2030 project, will enable 26 countries across Africa to access an $80 million programme.

The Principal Investigator, Professor Mathew Leitch, is optimistic Ghana could still benefit more from the Canadian government.

"The Global Affairs Canada BCDI project is an eight-year programme that has $80 million in funding across all of the different projects, and there are 26 nations in Africa that are part of this programme.

"I'm bringing about GH¢7m to Ghana on this one grant. This is not the only one we're going to get, trust me," Professor Mathew Leitch of the Faculty of Natural Resources Management at Lakehead University disclosed.

Professor Leitch detailed the initiative during a media briefing in Kumasi on Wednesday, October 14, 2026.

He stated that the new era highlights a relationship dating back to 1992 with the Canadian Economic Development Agency.

"The idea is to train lots of people and hopefully improve the lives of all Ghanaians and the environment here. We have seen some of the main areas of the UN strategies and, after initial meetings, areas where they found we could benefit.

"So things like illegal mining, using some of our remote sensing technologies combined with forestry and wood science, or more forestry as far as replanting and so reclamation, remediation and afforestation."

According to him, the partnership involves leveraging advanced Canadian technologies to address several environmental challenges faced by Ghana, including illegal mining and deforestation.

"Future remote sensing and geomatics training programmes will be structured around specific needs and issues in Ghana, with an upcoming one-month training session planned for approximately eight participants from various institutions.

"This initiative forms part of broader efforts that include senior-level executives to ensure knowledge is applied effectively from the top to down."

The partnership provides full scholarships to three Master's students at Lakehead University and sponsorship for 23 early to mid-career officers through tailored certificate programmes.

Professor Mrs Mercy Afua Adutwumwaa Derkyi is the Head of the Centre for Climate and Gender Studies at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR).

"You know, this programme is beneficial in terms of our capacity building. Building our capacity in knowledge, in skills, and also networking and strengthening our partnership," she disclosed to the media.

For the Forestry Commission, the partnership comes at a time when forest reserves and resources are under attack from illegal activities.

Authorities are hopeful that the introduction of modern approaches, such as remote sensing and mapping, to combat illegalities will yield positive results, as some of the Commission's staff undergo training in Canada.

The Director of Operations, Plantations, Forestry Commission, Valerie Fumey Nassah, underscored the importance of the project for the Commission, especially at a time when forest reserves are under attack from illegal activities.

"We have illegal mining. We have illegal farming. We have people putting up settlements in our forest reserves, which are only 15% of the entire country.

"So if we are able to monitor in real time, we will be able to ensure that we reduce the degradation of our forest reserves," she stated."

One unique thing about this BCDI 2030 project is that for all the participants in the training, 51% will have to be women.

"And it is not normal. It does not always happen like that, so we are very happy," she said.

The Head of Forestry Department, Samartex, Justice Eshun, said the company will take advantage of the partnership to research tree species.

"We want to use the opportunity presented by the partnership to conduct further studies on the behaviour of lesser-known timber species and develop them into viable, sought-after.[species]

"As a company, we are always looking to develop the lesser-used species. I believe we don't know much about 'Esa', we don't know much about 'Esiaa', and we don't even use it much," he noted.