As a child growing up in Ghana, Roselyn Fosuah Adjei used to tag along with her mother as she worked as a midwife at a local hospital, dreaming of one day becoming a medical doctor. But after graduating from high school, her uncle, a natural resources specialist, took her to one side - explaining that she could also become a Doctor of Education, kickstarting her career in climate action and forest conservation.
After graduating from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, Adjei was posted for her national service at the Forestry Commission where she enjoyed her forest inventory assignments, and this led her to pursue a permanent employment at the Commission. Almost two decades later, she is now the Director for Climate Change there, and for the last six years, has been the West African country’s REDD+ national coordinator.
Her expertise spans years of local community engagement, development of benefit sharing plans and the set-up of inclusive and gender-responsive governance structures for forest management – all key elements of the UN-REDD Programme’s mission. Her passion for forests is matched by her pursuit of gender equality.
“Wanting to be a medic was not really about the medical profession – I just wanted to be called a doctor,” Adjei said with a smile, speaking ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March. “My uncle told me that if it was just about the title, I could still have it and that led me to study a degree in natural resources.”
“The important lesson was that my dream could still be achieved, even if not within the medical profession,” added Adjei, who regularly visited nature-rich areas across Ghana in the early years for her climate work and currently has a forest view from her office.
While her uncle gave her a deeper understanding of the importance of forests for livelihoods and climate change, Adjei’s studies and career ignited her passion for balancing sustainable forest management and economic growth. For her job, she has spent days in Ghana’s forests in the highlands and lowlands, often in awe of the “unique” diversity and species found within these ecosystems.
The theme for this year’s IWD is “Rights. Equality. Empowerment” and Adjei is among several women leaders working on REDD+ who are demonstrating what it takes to achieve progress in addressing systemic barriers and biases that women face and promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment within their forest conservation work.
Like in many countries, Ghana’s forest conservation sector is male-dominated with women often excluded from decision-making processes. As the country’s first woman on the executive management team within the Forestry Commission of Ghana, Adjei also initially struggled to find her voice, partly due to her relatively young age.
“For me it’s always about achieving results,” she said when asked how she coped with entering a field dominated by men. “What does the job require me to do – I started by achieving that and more. Also, if you want your voice to be heard, you must always say what needs to be said.”
“I found that instead of focusing on the challenges, I turn them into opportunities,” she added. “Every challenge is a stepping stone for me to turn around, that is my mindset along with always achieving results.”
As Ghana’s first REDD+ gender officer, Adjei was the lead social and environmental safeguards expert during the REDD+ Readiness process, helping to also promote the country’s safeguards processes to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment principles.
She currently manages a diverse portfolio of forest landscape programs with funding support from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, the Green Climate Fund, the Private Sector, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This funding tackles agriculture-linked deforestation and forest degradation, and increasing sustainable production, especially for nationally important commodities such as cocoa, while helping restore forest cover and equitably empower women and men in local communities.
Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa beans. But its economy has had a serious impact on the country’s forests as cocoa is one of the key drivers of agriculture led deforestation. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the main technique used and one of the main focuses of international cooperation in these countries is to shift from this traditional approach to climate-friendly, climate-smart agriculture.
Other young women in Ghana have found inspiration from Adjei’s career path. Last year she commissioned a mentorship programme (Hangout With Roselyn) to equitably engage with young women and men to help and encourage them to achieve their climate and forestry career goals.
“So far, the reception from those involved has been amazing. We are looking forward to doing more this year. This gives me a lot of joy,” she said, adding that governments having the right policies or guidelines in place that encourage greater involvement of women in conservation is vital.
Adjei’s vast experience of sustainable forest management and climate action has contributed to Ghana’s achievements in REDD+ results-based payments and also defining how forest carbon markets should be mutually beneficial to both the demand and supply side. Paired with this expertise, she also remains a strong gender advocate in forest conservation and climate development planning and policy making.
The success of Ghana’s sustainability push within the REDD+ framework – especially in the equitable and active involvement of multiple stakeholders– has led to the country being able to access results-based payments as well as promote that the benefits thereof also reach more marginalized groups, such as women and men from local communities.
Backed by a World Bank trust fund, the first payment for reducing emissions – USD 4.86 million - was made in early 2023 for the 2019 monitoring period for reducing 972,456 tons of CO2 emissions. A further payment of USD 16 million was made in June last year for 2020/2021 monitoring period for reducing 3,379,161 tons of CO2 emissions.
Adjei, who has a university master's degree in carbon management from the University of Edinburgh, has not given up on her childhood dream of becoming a doctor one day. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Ghana on migration and climate change.
“I’m currently doing my PhD – I’m not done yet,” she quipped.
