“Going Green” Rhetoric or Reality: An Assessment of the Prospects and Challenges of Ghana’s Youth in Afforestation Programme
Sarpong Kumankuma Kwadwo Nketia, Stephen Appiah Takyi, Owusu Amponsah, Ata Senior Yeboah, Henry Mensah, Divine Kwaku Ahadzie
Abstract
Deforestation is a major environmental problem confronting countries in the Global South. In response to the high rate of deforestation, policymakers have over the years implemented a myriad of afforestation programmes. This study sought to assess the prospects and challenges of Ghana’s Youth in Afforestation Programme. The data used for this study was collected from 60 recruits of the afforestation programme. The researchers also relied on institutional interviews and documents from relevant agencies. Overall, the results showed that the Youth in Afforestation Programme has enormous potentials in restoring Ghana’s degraded forests and protecting existing ones. However, it is confronted with several challenges ranging from financial, logistical to political. The inability of the implementing agencies and other relevant stakeholders to address these challenges has reduced the programme to a mere rhetoric rather than serving as a tool for transforming the socio-economic and environmental frontiers of the Ghanaian society.