Young environmental leaders are being equipped with technical and digital skills to play a greater role in protecting and monitoring Ghana’s forests as pressure from illegal logging, mining, agricultural expansion and climate change continues to intensify.
The initiative, known as the Young Forest Champions, brings together young people working in forestry, restoration, biodiversity and climate action and provides them with mentorship and opportunities to develop their leadership and technical capacities.
The 2026 workshop, being held in Kumasi, brings together the 2025 and 2026 cohorts alongside representatives from government, academia and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
The three-day workshop is aimed at promoting peer learning, strengthening technical knowledge and building a national network of digitally enabled young forest leaders.
The programme is being implemented under the Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests (AIM4Forests) initiative of the FAO Forestry Division, which supports countries to strengthen National Forest Monitoring Systems through improved forest data, digital technologies and evidence-based decision-making.
It is being organised by the FAO Representation in Ghana, the Forestry Commission and the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the AIM4Forests Youth Engagement Specialist at FAO, Ms Eva Ntara, said effective forest monitoring was critical to understanding the state of the country’s forests and developing appropriate responses to emerging threats.
She said the FAO had been building the capacity of government officials and young people to understand the importance of forests, the challenges confronting them and ways of addressing those challenges.
Ms Ntara explained that the Young Forest Champions initiative began in Kenya in 2024 after an assessment identified the need for greater youth participation in forest-related issues.
The initiative has subsequently been extended to other African countries, including Ghana.
For 2026, 10 young forest champions have been selected to raise awareness of Ghana’s forestry, restoration and digital forest monitoring priorities.
They are also expected to showcase youth-led initiatives in forestry, restoration and biodiversity while demonstrating how digital forestry tools can support National Forest Monitoring Systems under AIM4Forests.
The workshop will further develop the participants’ advocacy, communication and leadership skills and create opportunities for collaboration between the 2025 and 2026 cohorts.
Madam Tessia Ama Boatemaa Boateng of the Climate Change Unit of the Forestry Commission said the initiative could contribute to strengthening forest governance in Ghana.
She said the Commission had worked with the FAO over the years and welcomed the involvement of young people in forest conservation and governance.
“It is good that we are involving the young people through training and learning from them,” she said, noting that some of the participants had innovative ideas that could contribute to better forest conservation.
A 2025 Young Forest Champion, Mr Theophilus Delali Dumenyo, said meaningful youth participation in forest governance was essential to improving the management and protection of the country’s forest resources.
He called on stakeholders to provide incentives to encourage more young people to participate in environmental and forest ecosystem activities.
The Dean of the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources at KNUST, Professor Emmanuel Acheampong, proposed that the programme could be sustained through a summer school model.
Under such a model, he said, graduate students could apply and be competitively selected to participate in the initiative, helping to expand its reach and create a continuous pipeline of young professionals with skills in forest management and monitoring.
The initiative comes at a time when Ghana’s forests continue to face pressures from degradation, illegal logging, agricultural expansion, mining and climate change, making stronger monitoring, youth participation and evidence-based forest management increasingly important.
