The Forestry Commission of Ghana has adopted forest plantations as a strategy to ensure landscape restoration, enhance environmental quality and develop a sustainable resource base to satisfy future timber demands. One of the reforestation programmes is the modified taungya system (MTS); a co-management system between the Forestry Commission and smallholder farmers that allows intercropping of timber and food crops. It entitles farmers to 100% of the food produce and a 40% share in the timber revenues in return for their contribution to tree planting, maintenance and protection. The MTS contributes to contribues to alleviating the scarcity of farming land and improving households’ livelihoods, Creating a legal source of future timber supply and also its contribution to creating climate-smart landscapes. However challenges have also been reported. One of these is the lack of mid-term benefits for farmers after canopy closure, when food crops can no longer be grown.