Regenerating Shea Parklands across a savannah landscape

Background info

Innovative business-thinking Eco Restore and their partners are creating a new vision of integrated landscape management in North Ghana.

West Africa has witnessed extensive tree cover loss over recent decades. Land use change, mechanisation of farming, chemical use, mining, logging, fallow loss and expansion of urban areas, all greatly impact the ecology of savannah landscapes. This undermines soil fertility and reduces crop resilience, putting food security at risk. Combined with reduced biodiversity and ecosystem services, tree cover loss is a key problem faced by local communities in north Ghana and beyond.

Solutions exist to bring regenerative farming systems to millions of hectares of savannah landscapes. Through organic farming and holistic land management, growing populations will have a nutritious diet for decades to come, while increased tree cover and healthy savannah landscapes secures foundations for local to global commodity chains.

Modernizing the Ancient

North Ghana is an ancient agricultural landscape. For millennia people intercropped with trees in sustainable and productive farming systems. The traditional parkland management is designed to supply diverse nutritious food ingredients (e.g. shea, dawadawa, yams, leafy vegetables, legumes) and a wide range of wood and animal products. However, the local rotational farm-fallow management is now largely replaced by conventional farming practices and intensive agriculture.

Eco Restore modernises ancient practices to develop regenerative parkland management. In partnerships with international businesses – such as Aduna, Bunge Loders Croklaan, Ecosia, Fuji Oil, and Terraformation –  local farmers and field-teams combine scientific understanding with indigenous knowledge to restore local tree cover and bring soil-based solutions to promote an innovative, beyond-sustainable, regenerative farming sector in North Ghana.

20 year vision

The established shea and diverse indigenous trees are coming into production to support fair and sustainable local businesses. Local communities integrate trees into their farming practices as the value for fertile soil, watershed management and biodiversity habitat is well known. With established trees on farm and through managing community woodlots, communities extract sufficient timber and wood fuel without clearing protected areas or forest reserves. The regeneration of Savannah parklands inspires all generations and there is widespread excitement for the years to come.

4 Returns

An enriched, green, beautified and productive landscape bringing satisfaction for rural communities

Bringing in the bean harvest in Kambagu

• Security in the landscape
• Creation of jobs in an innovative regenerative industry
• Landscapes that provide natural abundance for future generations

The Chiefs of Kukua in a meeting

• Improved and regenerative soil fertility
• Creation of diverse habitat
• Improved habitat for migrating birds
• Climate resilience increased

Seedlings in a nursery. Shea (Vitellaria paradox) is a valued tree and characteristic to sub-Saharan Savannahs

• New regenerative industry offers space for business entrepreneurs
• Green investment opportunities
• Diverse farming system result in resilient rural livelihoods

Susu collection: a cooperative saving scheme including sellers of shea butter (photo credit: Joseph Hunwick)

3 Zones

The conservation of national parks/ forest-reserve areas for tourism, biodiversity and watershed management. The establishment of community wood-fuel harvesting plots to support community wood-needs and provide habitat for biodiversity.

Mole national park is located in the Savannah region of Ghana and is the country's largest wildlife refuge

The regeneration of traditionally ‘rotational’ farm-fallow parklands. These supply a range of diverse nutritious ingredients from perennial trees to annual vegetables as well as providing livestock fodder (e.g. shea, yams, leafy vegetables, legumes, wood-fuel and livestock).

Okra - a widely used vegetable in Africa, India and the Caribbean - growing among Dawadawa (Parkia biglobosa) and Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) trees

Intensive, commercial food production zones for large-scale food production (e.g. rice, maize, soya, sorghum) and intercropped tree-crop production (e.g. shea, cashew). The economic zone is also where products of natural abundance are processed.

Roasting shea nuts at Wechiau (Photo credit: Joseph Hunwick)

Approach

There is a rich diversity of indigenous tree species in the Sahel-Savannah Belt which provide a myriad of benefits. From nutritious food crops, cosmetic ingredients, natural dyes, fibre, wood fuel, livestock fodder; to diverse ecosystem services like soil fertility, flood control and providing pollinator habitat.

Integrating the trees of North Ghana into regenerative parkland management offers incredible potential for soil restoration, improved local livelihoods and resilience against climate change.

Regenerative parkland management

Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) grows across the semi-arid Sahel-Savannah Belt: an area covering 21 African countries. Farmers have managed shea trees on parklands for centuries due to its useful qualities and economic value. The tree grows well with root crops, cereals and legumes; it improves soils and aids water conservation; the fresh fruit is enjoyed each year; a butter produced from the shea seed is used as a cooking oil and a rich moisturiser – especially during the dry harmattan months; and the residues of butter production provide mulch and organic fertilizer, making shea well suited to agroforestry.

Growing trees on-farm

Indigenous tree planting, direct seeding and Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) are approaches to enrich existing tree cover. Working with local farmers to develop agroforestry on-farm, as well as demonstrating low intensity tillage and growing wood lots to provide locally sourced fuel, will restore tree cover and make North Ghana a rich and abundant landscape once more.

Role of business

• Packages of established growing indigenous trees sold to firms which source a range of natural products from the savannah landscape of north Ghana
• For-profit farmers invest into programs through provision of land, planting labour and tree-guard materials
• Biodiverse species range improves ecosystem services whilst providing non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and sustainable sources of wood-fuel
• Investments create better crop yields through improving soil and pollination services
• Regenerative shea, baobab and other tree crop management connects local farmers and cooperatives to international market
• Avoids short-term “only trees planted” thinking with sustainable engagement, maintenance and monitoring services with farmers who want to make a profitable income

Achieved so far

• Three operational tree nurseries in North Ghana
• Capacity for 100,000+ seedlings: shea and 20+ species of other indigenous trees per year
• Partnered local nurseries capable of raising millions of tree seedlings
• Community outreach in rural villages, co-creating future visions to improve landscapes
• Established 12,000 high-quality guarded shea and other trees in 2020
• Established over a quarter of million tree seedlings in 2021
• Preparations well underway for larger-scale community tree growing packages

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