The West Africa Forest Investment Program (FIP) has achieved significant progress in restoring degraded landscapes, strengthening climate resilience, and improving rural livelihoods across Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana. Backed by the African Development Bank and development partners, the initiative includes 13 projects supported by $163 million in FIP financing and more than $231 million in co-financing.
During the West Africa Regional Forest Investment Program Close-Out Workshop held in Abidjan, stakeholders reviewed more than a decade of achievements and discussed future strategies for sustainable forest management and climate action. The program has demonstrated that environmental restoration, economic development, and community empowerment can be advanced simultaneously through strong partnerships.
Across the three participating countries, the initiative has restored forests and degraded land, promoted climate-smart agriculture, strengthened sustainable forest management, and created thousands of green jobs. The projects have also supported local communities by improving livelihoods, expanding sustainable value chains, and increasing resilience to climate change.
In Burkina Faso, the program combined forest restoration with livelihood improvement through sustainable agriculture, clean energy solutions, and land management practices. Ghana focused on community-led forest restoration, public-private partnerships, and agroforestry, while Côte d’Ivoire integrated forest conservation into cocoa production and rural development to reduce deforestation and strengthen climate resilience.
The Forest Investment Program has also placed strong emphasis on gender equality and social inclusion by expanding opportunities for women, youth, and local communities through training, access to finance, and participation in natural resource management. Collectively, the three national investment plans have contributed to reducing, avoiding, or sequestering more than 27 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, highlighting the program’s lasting impact on sustainable development and climate action in West Africa.
