EU-funded LEAN Project targets 32k shea, 10k Rosewood seedlings to tackle Climate Change & desertification north of Ghana

Due to population pressure, woodlands in northern Ghana are shrinking at an alarming rate.

The livelihoods of farmers are facing a crisis on multiple fronts.

In spite of this, tree felling for charcoal production and bush burning, coupled with unsustainable farming practices, urbanization, and construction, persist, contributing to severe deforestation. This is resulting in the loss of biodiversity, putting farmers’ livelihoods in serious jeopardy.

Farmers in Sori No. 1 in the West Gonja Municipal , such as Mary Jabiuk, 30, a mother of two children, have already begun experiencing the impact of these activities. She fears that these practices will take away their livelihood from them if nothing is done. Mary believes inclusiveness is foundational to the national landscape restoration processes and women who suffer most in all of this need to be given opportunity to lead in the landscape restoration processes.

Solving this complex situation requires an integrated approach to create a productive, prosperous, equitable, and resilient landscape.

Thankfully, the European Union-funded Landscape and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) Project being implemented by World Vision Ghana in the West Gonja and Kassena Nankana Districts is using an integrated approach to build farmers’ resilience by promoting sustainable environmental practices.

The LEAN project is a 4-year intervention that seeks to directly support the national efforts to conserve biodiversity, improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers, build climate resilience, and reduce emissions from land-use changes across Ghana’s savannah, high forest, and transition zones.  Other implementing partners include Rainforest Alliance, EcoCare Ghana and Tropenbos Ghana.

The project is also addressing three structural barriers that have historically hindered efforts by governments, civil society organizations, and the private sector to halt land degradation and deforestation through the uptake of landscape approaches.

“Climate change is manifesting at a very rapid pace in northern Ghana, so to ensure we are building communities and small scale farmers’ resilience, World Vision has trained and built capacities of 2,999 farmers on integrated land management(ILM) approaches ”, said, Joseph Edwin Yelkabong, LEAN project manager.

Aside from empowering communities and local farmers with skills and knowledge on Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), the project is facilitating establishment of alternative livelihood for the beneficiary communities. FMNR is a low-cost land restoration approach  used to combat poverty and hunger amongst poor farmers. The practice increases food and wood (timber) production and builds farmers resilience to climate shocks and stresses. This is minimizing farmers’ reliance on forest resources and drastically reduce forest and land degradation.

“In addition to this, World Vision Ghana facilitated a training on conservation agricultural practices such as zero tillage, green manuring, burning-free and mulching for 1,056 farmers, improving significantly their skills and knowledge  on conversation agriculture practices and soil management”,  he added

So far, more than 27,200  seedlings of varied tree species such as cashew, acacia, mahogany, Kapok and teak have been distributed to local farmers. For a lasting regreening and a contribution towards the fight against climate change and desertification in northern Ghana, the project is raising 32,000 seedlings of shea and 10,000 seedlings of rosewood.

Rosewood and shea are unique tree species with both ecological and economic advantages; they have long lifespan and ability to withstand harsh weather conditions.  Rosewood is highly rich in nitrogen and high in demand within the wood industry while shea provides butter (oil) that is globally sought for by the cosmetic industry. The initiative to raise and plant shea and rosewood will trigger changes that will traverse many grounds in any regreening initiative in the north, thanks to EU-LEAN Project.

Diversifying livelihoods of natural dependence-population can help the project achieve its objective. It is based on this that, the project is undertaken a survey to identify   on additional livelihood and income generation activities for farmers in its operational communities.

World Vision Ghana is achieving these by working closely with decentralized structures, local community leaders, and farmers and gradually and sustainably restoring degraded landscapes, improving soil fertility, enhance ecosystem and improving the lives and livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable farmers.

This, Mary said, is currently helping to restore hope for Sori, N0. 1 community that is witnessing rapid deforestation and losses of livelihood.