Our Strategic Goals

NCRC has entered its 3rd decade of work. The organization has grown rapidly over its first two decades to its current position as a leading conservation organization in Ghana and an important environmental group engaging across Africa. As a result of its 1st decade of activities, the Centre was recognized by the Government of Ghana and international partners as a key actor in the development of rural ecotourism and community protected areas in Ghana. NCRC’s community tourism model was articulated in the national policy as the Government’s preferred approach to the development of rural tourism and has been acknowledged globally as a successful rural tourism initiative. The Centre’s work in rural ecotourism has also been instrumental in the establishment of the first private sector luxury safari lodge company in West Africa – Zaina Lodge.

NCRC’s pioneered the thinking behind community protected areas in Ghana – conceptualizing the Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) mechanism and the 1st implementation of areas to be considered under the CREMA model. The CREMA model has been recognized in national policy and in new legislation by the Government of Ghana, and CREMA is increasingly being cited as one of the main alternatives to conventional protected areas strategies driven by state actors.

During NCRC’s 2nd decade, the development of payment for ecosystem services (PES) initiatives has become a key aspect of our work. As a climate change mitigation initiative aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, NCRC was one of the first African NGOs to aggressively adopt a REDD+ work stream and has grown to become the leading organization on the continent with technical expertise on emissions reductions. NCRC has also spearheaded the development of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) initiatives that bridge major commodities, like cocoa and coffee. To date, NCRC can cite major contributions to REDD+ and CSA across 9 African countries.

Research is also at the forefront of NCRC’s work to explore the role and dynamics of ecosystem services in forest and tree crop landscapes with partners like Oxford University. With its long history of engagement, NCRC has the unique ability to both inform how research is designed, in order to maximize its relevance, and to share findings with key decision makers at local and national levels to ensure that there is a real transfer of knowledge into action.