Ghana’s forests are a goldmine we keep ignoring, and one researcher is determined to change that
In a country where the rush toward technology and modernity often drowns out older, quieter wisdom, one scientist is making a passionate case for looking inward, into the forests, the woodlands, and the centuries of knowledge embedded within them.
Dr. Rebecca Ashley Asare, Director of Programmes and Research at the Nature Conservation Research Centre, used this year’s World Wildlife Day commemoration to deliver a call to action that was equal parts cultural reminder and economic argument.
She opened with a proverb that has stayed with her.
“There’s a proverb I’ve learned from you, don’t be ungrateful to the forest that has saved you,” she said.
It was a deliberate choice of words, one that set the tone for everything that followed. Because for Dr. Asare, Ghana’s relationship with its forests is not merely ecological. It is existential.
“Our forests and woodlands are integral to sustaining our health, our heritage and our legacy. It’s who we are as Ghanaians. It’s where we come from,” she added.
But that identity, she warned, is under threat, and the danger is made worse by a widespread failure to recognise what is actually at stake. Chief among the overlooked treasures, in her view, are the medicinal and aromatic plants that grow quietly within Ghana’s forest ecosystems, largely unnoticed and deeply undervalued.
“One of the most overlooked things in our forests is these herbal and medicinal plants. They are immensely important to our health, to the ecosystem, and they hold tremendous economic opportunity,” she stressed.
To illustrate her point, Dr. Asare reached for a concrete example drawn from five years of hands-on work in the Kakum National Park landscape, where her organisation has partnered with the Wildlife Division and local community leaders. There, they identified a tree known locally as Otie, also called African nutmeg or kombo nut, whose potential turned out to extend far beyond Ghana’s borders.
“It’s not just an herbal medicine from the forest. It actually has international value. It helps reduce swelling and body pain and is used by people who suffer from arthritis. Even the horse racing industry uses it to treat joint pain in animals,” she explained.
The numbers behind that single plant tell a compelling story. Over the past five years, more than 15,000 kilogrammes of kombo nuts have been harvested from forests and farms by over 1,000 farmers, with the produce fetching prices on par with cocoa. More than 80 percent of the beneficiaries, Dr. Asare noted, are women, a detail that underscores the potential of forest economies to drive grassroots, inclusive growth.
And there is more to come. Plans are already in motion to establish a processing factory within the Kakum landscape this year, a move designed to add value locally rather than exporting raw produce, and to deepen the economic opportunities available to surrounding communities.
Yet for Dr. Asare, the kombo nut is not the headline, it is merely the opening paragraph of a much longer story.
“This is just one example. There are thousands of plants in our forests and woodlands with economic, health and cultural value,” she emphasised.
Her closing message carried the urgency of someone who has seen firsthand what neglect costs, and what attention can unlock.
“Don’t go chasing TikTok and AI and all these technologies. Let’s look at what we already have in our natural systems. Let’s invest in our health, our legacy and our environment,” she urged. “Let’s not forget what the forest has already given to us.”
It was a reminder, delivered with quiet conviction, that sometimes the most revolutionary thing a country can do is pay attention to what it already has.
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