Ghana - Gross emissions from cocoa deforestation
Years available: 2014-2024
Data last updated: 28 Jul 2025
GHG emissions from cocoa deforestation (tonnes of CO₂-eq) were calculated within a given year and department by estimating all of the CO₂-eq. potentially emitted due to cocoa deforestation. Here, deforestation was defined as the conversion from undisturbed forest to deforested land (Vancutsem et al., 2021) within the period starting 19 years and ending 4 years before the detection of cocoa plantation by (Kalischek et al., 2023). This metric is calculated by multiplying the deforested area by an estimate of the carbon stock contained in each hectare of deforested land. Carbon stocks represent the total carbon stored in above- and below-ground biomass, but does not include carbon stocks in the soil. We create local estimates of biomass density (carbon stocks per hectare) using data from (Soto-Navarro et al., 2020). Carbon is converted into CO₂-eq emissions by multiplying by a factor of 44/12 ( or 3.67), based on the ratio between the molecular weight of C and CO₂ following (Pachauri et al., 2015).
- (Kalischek et al., 2023; Pachauri et al., 2015; Soto-Navarro et al., 2020; Vancutsem et al., 2021)
- Kalischek, N., Lang, N., Renier, C., Daudt, R. C., Addoah, T., Thompson, W., Blaser-Hart, W. J., Garrett, R., Schindler, K., & Wegner, J. D. (2023). Cocoa plantations are associated with deforestation in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Nature Food, 4(5), 384–393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00751-8
- Soto-Navarro, C., Ravilious, C., Arnell, A. P., de Lamo, X., Harfoot, M. B. J., Hill, S. L. L., Wearn, O. R., Santoro, M., Bouvet, A., Mermoz, S., Le Toan, T., Xia, J., Liu, S., Yuan, W., Spawn, S. A., Gibbs, H. K., Ferrier, S., Harwood, T., Alkemade, R., … Kapos, V. (2020). Above and below ground biomass carbon [Dataset]. UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). https://doi.org/10.34892/RH7V-HG80
- Vancutsem, C., Achard, F., Pekel, J.-F., Vieilledent, G., Carboni, S., Simonetti, D., Gallego, J., Aragão, L. E. O. C., & Nasi, R. (2021). Long-term (1990–2019) monitoring of forest cover changes in the humid tropics. Science Advances, 7(10), eabe1603. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe1603
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