Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has commended a US$54.5 million Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reduction Project aimed at restoring degraded shea parklands and improving the existing stock of economic and multi-purpose trees in the northern-savanna part of the country.

The project will support self-financing community management to restore savanna forests and by using public-private partnerships to restore degraded shea parklands.

The seven-year project approved by the Global Climate Fund is to be implemented by the Forestry Commission with the support of private sector actors from the Global Shea Alliance and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Speaking about the project, Dr Bawumia admonished the Forestry Commission to see the project as a strategic investment to stop shea parkland destruction and empower communities and their ecosystems to build climate and economic resilience.