Altus Impact is working with Oko Forests and Swiss Sustainability Management School (SUMAS) to integrate environmental and social factors into Oko Forests’ business model.

Oko Forests is an environmentally conscious for-profit company whose mission is to boost the incomes of small-holder farmers in Ghana and improve cassava productivity. Oko Forests processes cassava into high quality cassava flour and is seeking to improve environmental outcomes and incomes by deploying agroforestry practices to thousands of farms across the country. Cassava will be grown among indigenous tress, which will also supply timber and NTFPs. As such, Oko Forests promotes the decoupling of deforestation from the expansion of food production systems in Ghana.

In collaboration with SUMAS's students, we are using InVEST models from the Natural Capital Project to analyze how cassava agroforestry systems in Ghana can contribute to carbon storage, erosion control, smallholder income and wider ecosystem resilience. This will allow Oko Forests to integrate social and environmental factors in their business model and attract impact investors.

If you would like to know more about how integrated social, economic and environmental accounting can influence decision making over land and natural resource uses, please contact us.

Find out more about the OKO Forests initiative.