The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), the US-based crediting programme, issued 6.57 million TREES credits to the Government of Ghana on 12 November 2026 for cutting emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, according to ART's announcement.
Each credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. Ghana is the first country in Africa to receive TREES credits and the third worldwide, after Guyana and Costa Rica. ART said they are also the first TREES credits labelled Core Carbon Principles (CCP) Approved in its registry, and the first issued under its TREES Crediting Level approach.
The credits cover verified emission reductions achieved between 2017 and 2021 across about 2.5 million hectares of Ghana's cocoa-forest landscape. Spread over those five years, 6.57 million tonnes is about 1.31 million tonnes a year.
What the money is, and is not. A statement from the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, read at the Ghana Pavilion at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, said the issuance was expected to trigger initial payments of about US$43 million, as reported by Citi Newsroom.
That is linked to an expected purchase of about 4 million tonnes of the credits, including by the LEAF Coalition, at US$10 to US$13 a tonne. The statement was explicit: "Issuance is not payment. The issuance confirms the verified credits, but not the payments."
The figures imply some useful checks. Four million tonnes at the quoted range would be worth US$40 million to US$52 million; US$43 million works out at about US$10.75 a tonne, near the bottom of that range. The 4 million tonnes are about 61% of the 6.57 million issued, leaving roughly 2.57 million credits outside this first expected sale.
Spread across the programme's 2.5 million hectares, US$43 million is about US$17 a hectare. These are StatsGH calculations from the published figures, not official estimates.
Compared with earlier forest payments. The minister's statement said Ghana received about US$21.8 million in Forest Carbon Partnership Facility payments in 2023 and 2024 under the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme. If the expected US$43 million is paid in full, it would be almost twice (1.97 times) that amount.
Where the money should go. According to Emergent, which coordinates the LEAF Coalition, credits will be transacted through an independent financial intermediary under an agreed benefit-sharing plan, with more than two-thirds of net proceeds going directly to local stakeholders, including farmers, communities and traditional authorities.
The Forestry Commission's Director of Climate Change, Dr Joseph Appiah Gyapong, said the credits "do not represent the carbon stored in Ghana's forests" but verified reductions against set benchmarks, measured with the National Forest Monitoring System, satellite data and independent verification.
The figure to watch is the cash. Neither ART nor the ministry has published a payment date, the buyers' individual volumes, or the price for each tranche. Until those transactions settle, US$43 million remains an expected figure, not revenue.