A landmark capacity-building workshop for environmental journalists, reporters, and content creators concluded in Ghana on June 23, 2026. The intensive initiative successfully equipped media practitioners with the critical scientific knowledge, investigative tools, and policy frameworks required to report on one of the country’s most pressing ecological emergencies: the accelerating loss of biodiversity and forest genetic resources within the Guinean Forests of West Africa.
Organized under the Biodiversity Media Learning Initiative, the program was spearheaded by the World University Service of Canada (WUSC-EUMC) in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute (CSIR-PGRRI), ABANTO, and World Agroforestry, with crucial funding support from the Government of Canada. Facilitated by Mr. Ben Sakyi of CSIR-PGRRI, the workshop spanned eight comprehensive sessions featuring scientific presentations, field visits, and practical investigative assignments.
Ghana’s Upper Guinean Forests Teetering on the Brink
Ghana sits squarely within the Upper Guinean Forest, a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot home to 906 native tree species. However, new scientific data reveals that these ecosystems are facing an unprecedented existential crisis. According to data presented by Dr. Edmund Osei Owusu of CSIR-PGRRI, 146 of Ghana’s native tree species are currently endangered, while 38 species have been pushed into the Critically Endangered category, representing the highest possible risk of extinction.
The situation is particularly dire in the Atewa landscape of the Eastern Region, which shelters 58 endemic endangered species. Among these are highly prized commercial timber species, including African Rosewood, Mahogany, Odum, and Wawa—species that form the ecological and economic backbone of rural forest communities. Experts identified the primary drivers of this destruction as unsustainable logging, agricultural expansion, illegal mining (galamsey), infrastructure development, and climate-induced drought.
“What gets measured gets managed, and what journalists report on gets acted upon,” stated Dr. Daniel Ashie Kotey, CSIR-PGRRI.
Safeguarding the Genetic Blueprint at the National Genebank
A major focal point of the training centered on the operations of Ghana’s National Genebank, located at the CSIR-PGRRI facility in Bunso. Dr. Matilda Bissah and Dr. Rashied Tetteh detailed the immense scope of the facility, which currently safeguards over 4,000 orthodox accessions and 218 cryo accessions across more than 80 vital plant species, including staples like cereals, legumes, and threatened indigenous trees. Since 2012, the bank has distributed over 3,500 accessions to local farmers and researchers to preserve agricultural resilience.
During field tours, journalists inspected advanced seed-sorting facilities and an in-vitro genebank growing disease-free plantlets of cassava, yam, and plantain. However, scientists disclosed a worrying operational bottleneck: due to frequent power outages, viability testing intervals for conserved seeds have been forced down from every five years to every three years, illustrating how cutting-edge conservation remains vulnerable to basic infrastructure deficits.
“Once a genetic trait is lost, its potential value is gone forever. Plant Genetic Resources are the bank of agriculture,” Dr. Rashied Tetteh, CSIR-PGRRI stated.
The Invisible Workforce Driving Ghana’s Agricultural Economy
In a session that shifted perspectives on economic biodiversity, Dr. Boamah Duku Emmanuel revealed the massive fiscal stakes tied to protecting unnoticed organisms. Globally, pollination services contribute an estimated USD 208 billion annually to agriculture. In Ghana, pollinators drive 11.1% of total national agricultural production, injecting approximately USD 7 million per year into the economy.
The training highlighted crop-specific vulnerabilities; for instance, Ghana’s multi-million dollar cocoa export industry relies uniquely on midges for pollination, while cash crops like cashew, shea, and mango depend entirely on distinct bee populations. Below the surface, mycorrhizal and saprophytic fungi drive the vital nutrient cycling that sustains crop yields without chemical fertilizers, making underground conservation just as critical as protecting visible wildlife.
Empowering Women Through Indigenous Green Enterprises
The workshop successfully reframed wild forest assets as active tools for economic empowerment, particularly for rural women. An estimated 900,000 women are currently engaged in Ghana’s shea value chain, dominating the collection and processing of shea nuts. Drought-tolerant species such as Dawadawa, Baobab, and the African Star Apple offer low-input income avenues perfectly adapted for climate change adaptation.
Participants analyzed emerging green enterprise models, ranging from community nursery operations to eco-certified product branding for premium international markets. Additionally, updates were provided on the BOLDER Project, which is conserving over 1,000 underutilized nutritious crops like Amaranthus and Turkey berry, alongside an FAO-supported genetic improvement project to boost drought and disease tolerance in local taro crops.
Tracking Broken Promises and Confronting Biopiracy
Journalists were provided with practical investigative strategies to audit the government’s compliance with international treaties, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Paris Agreement, and SDG 15. A core focus was placed on the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing, a legal mechanism designed to prevent biopiracy—the unauthorized commercial exploitation of Ghana’s domestic plant genetic resources by foreign entities.
Reporters were trained to navigate specialized compliance tracking platforms, including the CBD Clearing-House Mechanism and Global Forest Watch. Journalists were explicitly urged to rigorously monitor Ghana’s progress toward the 30×30 target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which legally commits the nation to protecting 30% of its land and sea areas by the year 2030.
Media Weaponized as the Ultimate Shield for Conservation
The overarching consensus of the event was clear: scientific discovery alone cannot halt Ghana’s ecological decline. Armed with strategic story assignments tracking biopiracy, climate pledges, and policy enforcement, the newly trained media coalition is expected to bridge the gap between scientific data and public action.
The underlying Nature-based Solutions (NbS) Project will continue targeting critical preservation efforts across the Lake Bosomtwe landscape and the Wassa Amenfi landscape, ensuring that gender-inclusive, community-led adaptation takes firm root across the vulnerable Guinean forest ecosystem.
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