19/08/2026
What happens when communities are not only asked to protect their forests, but are given a clear and practical way to do it?
Over the past weeks, The Resource Foundation Ghana facilitated the development of a Community Infraction across five forest landscapes in the Western North Region of Ghana.
The process brought together CREMAs, traditional authorities, Unit Committee members, community representatives, and other local stakeholders to discuss a simple but important question:
When a forest threat is observed, what should a community do?
Together, stakeholders developed and adopted a practical response process that guides communities on how to observe, safely report, verify, and follow up on forest infractions through the appropriate authorities, including the Ghana Forestry Commission.
But we did not stop at developing the protocol.
The protocol has now been disseminated to communities and transformed into easy-to-understand posters, which are being displayed at strategic community locations. These posters provide clear guidance on how community members can report illegal logging, illegal mining, bushfires, encroachment, and other forest degradation without putting themselves at risk.
This is more than a poster. It is a step toward building a community-owned forest governance system where local knowledge can connect with formal forest monitoring and enforcement structures.
When a farmer, traditional leader, youth member, or community monitor sees a threat to the forest, they should know what to do, who to contact, and how to report safely.
Global Nature Watch World Resources Institute
