Awareness Creation The interventions in community engagement and awareness creation involved 20,000 community members who were informed on the impacts of illegal logging on the sustainability of ecosystem services currently provided by the landscape. Awareness creation in landscape restoration has been identified as a key strategy for overcoming engagement challenges regarding socio-cultural norms that lead to landscape degradation and increase the impacts of climate change (Schweizer et al. 2021; Stanturf 2021). The use of awareness creation by the project, therefore, led to the active participation of community members in other interventions introduced by the project, such as restoration activities, particularly woodlot establishment. Active participation is evident in the communities providing land for communal restoration and individuals collecting tree seedlings to be planted on their farms. It also informed the organisation of women for the establishment and management of a community nursery to supply the seedlings needed to undertake the restoration activities. These actions by community members within the study area can also be assessed as a form of adaptive management, which is useful in ensuring the sustainability of landscape restoration efforts (Williams and Brown 2014).

Community Land Use Mapping The landscape needs assessment and community mapping carried out by the project led to the identification of areas categorised as farmlands, degraded areas, very degraded areas, and fallow lands. Farmlands were defined as areas suitable for farming. Degraded areas were defined as areas in the communities where biodiversity stock was mainly saplings and had lots of undergrowth. Very degraded areas were defined as areas where there was a low density of native flagship species. Fallow areas were defined as either fire-prone areas or areas where fuelwood was sourced. The community land use mapping resulted in the development of a community land use map to guide resource utilisation within the landscape. Land use mapping is a popular tool for maximising land use benefits and guiding decision-making regarding land resources (Vihervaara et al. 2018; PoccardChapuis et al. 2021). The development of a community land use map using participatory mapping tools has been identified as essential for assisting stakeholders in valuing landscape elements based on their needs, developing a vision for the landscape, as well as guiding landscape investment priorities (Ernoul et al. 2018). The community land use map is therefore used by communities to identify and monitor changes in land use and land cover that occur within the landscape. The map also guides communities’ decisions on identifying areas that need interventions, such as restoration, interventions for climate smart agriculture, biodiversity monitoring, and monitoring for bushfires. This intervention thereby feeds into the achievement of the landscape vision of a resilient landscape supporting livelihoods and biodiversity (A Rocha Ghana and IUCN 2019, unpublished).

Restoration The project target was 500 ha, however, due to the overwhelming acceptance of the project and its interventions by communities, the project exceeded its original target by 150 ha. Beneficiary communities, as part of the restoration activities, planted 500,000 native seedlings on a total of 650 ha of land with a survival rate of 60%. The woodlots were established to provide sustainable raw materials for charcoal producers. These efforts contribute to the achievement of the targets set by the National Strategic Energy Plan (NSEP) to establish over 6.5 million ha of plantations by 2020 (Energy Commission 2006). The NSEP is a government initiative started in 2006 that aims to contribute to the development of a sound energy market that would provide sufficient, viable, and efficient energy services for Ghana’s economic development. Some of NSEP’s major activities include setting up plantations and the creation of woodlots, as wood fuels account for more than 60% of total energy used in Ghana (Energy Commission 2006). Effective landscape restoration contributes to enhancing biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services as described in the examples of Gann et al. (2019). The assessed net effects so far of the restoration efforts of this case study based on the different restoration techniques show a balance between the different areas planted and a general increase in vegetation cover within the landscape (Gann et al. 2019). Other benefits within the local communities include supporting healthy wildlife populations through securing habitats, and maintaining the primary and secondary seed dispersal essential for plant regeneration and woodland dynamics (Ruxton and Schaefer 2012). This goes to confirm the assertion by Stanturf et al. (2019) that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to landscape restoration, however, the complexity of socio-ecological systems provides not only challenges but also opportunities for meeting diverse needs. Furthermore, the loss of keystone megafauna from ecosystems in the landscape could have profound and long-lasting negative effects on its ecological structure and function (Malhi et al., 2016). This chapter argues that based on the results of the project so far, the identified landscape threats, if not mitigated, would greatly affect the landscape’s ability to support itself through pollinator activities and tree dispersal to regenerate and serve as a habitat for wildlife (Newton et al. 2018). It is, however, fair to say that the project through the strategies employed, has applied some principles of ecological restoration as outlined by Gann et al. (2019), thereby resulting in the current observed net gain. Key highlights of these principles include the effective engagement of a wide range of stakeholders and the utilisation of scientific, traditional, and local knowledge (Gann et al. 2019). The restoration efforts of the project are also contributing to the achievement of SDG 15.

Training for Charcoal Producers The green business model training for charcoal producers within the landscape focused on using sustainable means of producing biomass energy and finding alternatives to the use of wood fuel. The training led to the development of alternative biomass energy sources such as briquettes and the development of business plans targeted at investors within the landscape to support the production of briquette instead of fuelwood. Another intervention, the introduction of fuel-efficient cookstoves, involved the distribution of 300 cookstoves as part of a pilot to 300 households. The promotion of alternatives to fuelwood, such as briquettes, as a strategy for landscape restoration is one that has been successfully used in other areas. For instance, South Korea restored degraded landscapes using interventions such as substituting wood with coal briquettes, remodelling house heating systems to use the briquettes, and establishing fuelwood plantations, also known as woodlots (Stanturf et al. 2019). The project’s introduction of briquettes and fuel-efficient stoves as alternatives to high dependence on fuelwood is validated by the South Korean example. Furthermore, the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities through inclusive decision-making is highly recommended as a strategy for sustainable landscape restoration efforts (ITTO 2021). Taking the interventions on introduction of alternative livelihoods further, 11 businesses that took part in the training have since developed proposals suitable for various investment opportunities. One of these 11 businesses has actually received investment support to translate its business idea into a product that could be adopted by the communities to address their biomass energy dependency. The provision of capacity building for these businesses through the landscape restoration initiative is contributing to new income sources, thereby building community resilience to the impacts of global challenges such as climate change (Agostini and Proskuryakova 2022). 

Fire Management As a result of the fire management training carried out in 2020, communities were better prepared for fires in 2021. With the creation of fire belts in fire-prone areas and community members’ ability to read and interpret the Fire Danger Index, communities were able to successfully combat seven out of eight fire incidents that were recorded in 2021. One of the six communities that were trained in fire management did not record any fires at all. Fire as a tool for landscape management has benefits of enhancing landscape vegetation, improving soil conditions, and even promoting the regeneration of some fire-dependent tree species such as Pterocarpus erinaceus, Combretum nigricans, and Terminalia Avicennioides (Obiri et al. 2022; Husseini et al. 2020; Amoako et al. 2018; Alagona et al. 2012). However, the devastating nature of wildfires in particular cannot be underestimated as they also contribute to land use changes and impact livelihoods. Therefore, the use of fire management is required to address the changes resulting from bushfires (Yaro and Tsikata 2013; Butsic et al. 2015). Studies have shown that the effect of bushfires on vegetation cover loss and the attendant impact on biodiversity loss/climate change is an annual occurrence, particularly in the dry season between November and April (Kugbe et al. 2012). Within the Savanna ecozone where the study area is located, the rate of bushfire incidences has been the highest compared to other parts of Ghana. Bushfires have led not only to loss of biodiversity and vegetation cover, but also life and property, particularly farmlands (Amoako et al. 2018). The essence of the fire management training was therefore to build community resilience and enhance response time to addressing fire incidences through fire management techniques (Fig. 2.3). 

To sustain the efforts resulting from the fire management training, a community Fire Danger Index notice board was mounted at the community square, and daily rankings are displayed to create awareness of potential fires. The notice board is updated daily by selected community fire volunteers to inform communities of the potential for bushfires each day. The project also provided fire management logistics and organised community volunteers who take turns monitoring for potential fires, thus resulting in faster response time for combating wildfires. The cumulative impact of these interventions has been an observed reduction in bushfires due to community capacity to read and interpret the fire index and more importantly to respond to fire incidences.

Promotion of Citizen Science Landscape Monitoring The use of the ODK Collect application and the Event Book tool is helping community members to track the types of species that are spilling over into their communities that can be used in marketing to tourists. Given that ecotourism is one of the livelihood activities that the local communities are developing, wildlife spillovers from the Mole National Park that are picked up by the monitoring tools thereby inform on the availability of species to attract and sustain visitor presence at the community level. Furthermore, monitoring results have also shown evidence of good natural regeneration of most woody species enumerated in the landscape based on the fact that 48 tree species out of the 70 recorded are naturally regenerating. This observation is validated by Stanturf et al. (2019), who indicated that monitoring restored systems and allowing time for them to develop were necessary steps to ensure successful restoration. 

The use of citizen science to help monitor conservation efforts has evolved over the last three decades (Catlin-Groves 2012). With the introduction of technology, data collection through the use of smartphones has made data transmission a lot easier (Catlin-Groves 2012). Moreover, citizen science enables the collection of data or monitoring of conservation efforts over a large area within the shortest possible time due to a large number of people providing information and options to validate information through the use of GPS (Catlin-Groves 2012). Through the evolution of citizen science, different tools have been introduced, making data collection and transmission a walk in the park. It has been argued that, although citizen science data collection may not be carried out by experts, it has informed decision-making on several conservation actions (Hovis et al. 2020; Catlin-Groves 2012). The use of the ODK Collect application and the Event Book tool has enabled the communities to monitor and provide updates on biodiversity issues so that these can be incorporated into decision-making and the development of landscape management plans.