The Tropenbos International Ghana programme started in 2000 following an agreement between the Government of Ghana and the Tropenbos Foundation, now Tropenbos International (TBI). The inception phase went very well, producing new knowledge for managing forest conflicts, silvicultural interventions and the application of geographical information systems in forest management. TBI Ghana also made a major contribution to forestry dialogue and the research capacity of forestry institutions and personnel in Ghana.

Our objectivity and commitment to addressing the challenges in the forestry and environmental sectors is recognized and appreciated by many Ghanaian organizations, institutions and development partners.

TBI Ghana now plays a key role in enhancing the capacities of personnel while strengthening partner organizations and institutions, such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG).

TBI Ghana is running a new five-year programme on the broad theme of ‘improved forest-dependent livelihoods in the high forest zone of Ghana', with special emphasis on equity and illegal logging.

The new programme has the following overall objectives:

• Alleviate poverty in rural (forest fringe) communities
• Improve forest-dependent livelihoods
• Ensure the conservation and sustainable use of forested areas
• Put effective mechanisms in place to support, evaluate, revise, harmonize and enforce existing (forestry) laws and regulations through research

Objective
Forestry actors in Ghana deploy sound and adequate information for poverty reduction policies that improve forest-dependent livelihoods and increase forest cover and services in rural areas.

Location
Forest-based livelihoods are widespread throughout Ghana but are especially concentrated in the High Forest Zones. Fieldwork for different aspects of forest-based livelihoods will therefore be carried out in different parts of the forest zones of Ghana. The Goaso Forest District has been selected as the main research site.

The Goaso site is about three hours drive to the west of Kumasi. It has a total area of 2,187.5 km² and offers opportunities for studying issues connected with forest-depended livelihoods, poverty reduction and illegal logging. It lies between latitudes 6^o 27' N and 7^o 00' N and longitudes 2^o 23' W and 2^o 52' W. The research site contains six contiguous forest reserves covering an area of 761.23 km², making it one of the richest forest districts in Ghana. The forests reserves have been extensively logged, but they still remain productive and constitute one of the few examples of sustainable logging in West Africa. Forests outside the reserves are unsustainably logged.