421 Hectares degraded lands being restored in West Gonja, Kassena Nankana West

A total of 421 hectares of degraded lands in the Kassena Nankana West District in the Upper East Region and West Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region are being restored to conserve biodiversity and improve the life of the people.

It forms part of a four-year Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) component of a $5-million EU-funded landscapes and environmental agility across the nation (LEAN) project.

Under the project, community members are being trained to protect the environment by pruning unwanted shrubs of already existing trees to restore the fast-depleting forest without necessarily planting new trees.

It also aims at conserving biodiversity, building climate resilience and reducing emissions from land use changes in the savannah, high forest, and transition zones in the country, while helping local farmers to improve their livelihoods.

It is being implemented by a consortium led by Rainforest Alliance, which is implementing it in the High Forest Zone; EcoCare Ghana and Tropenbos, which are undertaking the project in the Transition Zone, and World Vision Ghana which is implementing it in the savannah landscape.

Visit

The World Vision Ghana LEAN Project Officer, Kassena Nankana West District, Joseph T. Abugri, announced this when he led some beneficiary farmers from the West Gonja municipality to visit FMNR sites in the Upper East Region last Tuesday.

Among sites visited were Navio Samwuo and Yameriga in the Kassena Nankana West and Talensi districts, to learn more about the restoration project.

Mr Abugri said that as part of the project, trees and shrubs were being protected in 50 communities in both districts to pave the way for their total restoration to improve the environment and also shore up food production.

Empowerment

The project officer also said that through capacity-building training, residents in beneficiary communities had been empowered to understand the consequences of indiscriminate cutting down of trees and bush burning.

“Undoubtedly, climate change is now a threat to human lives and, therefore, there is the need for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to fight against it for the ultimate benefit of humanity, he said.”

Mr Abugri said the organisation was happy that the community members, having realised the devastating effects of land degradation, have joined hands for the restoration to save the environment.

He added that the project was aimed at contributing to the nation’s efforts towards biodiversity restoration and climate resilience, and expressed the hope that beneficiary communities would sustain the project to safeguard the environment.

Beneficiaries

Two beneficiaries from the West Gonja Municipality, Iddrisu Abubakari and Fatima Boamani, said the FMNR concept had been very beneficial as it had enabled them to restore lands to provide fodder for their animals to feed on.

“Fortunately for us, we have been able to protect our lands since the inception of the project to provide grass and food to improve our livelihoods. “We will, therefore, like to commend World Vision Ghana for the intervention,” Ms Boamani said.

Another beneficiary farmer from Batiu community in Kassena Nankana West, Faustina Banakwoyem, acknowledged their role in the degradation of lands by cutting down of trees for firewood and charcoal.

She, however, said that since the project commenced, they had been schooled on the danger of such practices, adding “due to the intervention, I must say that the rampant cutting of trees in our community has reduced”.

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