Patrick Opoku

Faculty Biography

Dr. Patrick Opoku is a Lecturer at the Department of Forest Resources Technology of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. He is a graduate of KNUST (BSc), University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Diploma) and the Dresden University of Technology in Germany (PhD). His current research interests are in the areas of forest policy, urban forestry and greening, climate change and agroforestry adoption. In addition, his teaching activities cover aspects of land and forest governance, statistics, forest business planning and appraisal, entrepreneurship, business management, socioeconomics and policy of tropical forestry.He has over 12 years work experience in natural resource management and has worked for several organizations in Ghana and abroad including the Dutch Organization for Development Cooperation (Tropenbos International), the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) in Germany. He supported the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) in setting up the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) to improve training and capacities in the fields of land management and land policy in Africa, as well as to promote needs-based research in Africa and measures for monitoring, evaluation and knowledge exchange in this area. Under the NELGA programme, Dr. Opoku assisted the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the implementation of the In-country In-region scholarship program in Africa that has granted over 82 scholarships to students in Africa. He has been instrumental in the development of training programs and curricula on land governance in KNUST, University of Liberia, University of Makeni in Sierra Leone and the Federal University of Technology in Minna State, Nigeria.He is a recipient of several grants and awards including the Climate Africa Scholarship Award, Alexander von Humboldt Climate Protection Fellowship Award and the Dresden Leibniz Graduate Scholarship Award. He is a member of the Ghana Science Association and a Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Foresters. Patrick is also a Visiting Research Associate at the Chair of Forest Policy and Resource Economics, Dresden University of Technology, Germany.