The 2011 United Nations Human Development report released in last November revealed that about 4 million Ghanaians are currently dependent on degraded lands, noting that the natural resources depletion rate for Ghana is also about 7% of Gross National Income of all the citizenry.
This could be attributed to the fact that about 30% of Ghana’s forest cover was lost between 1990 and 2008. The most interesting aspect of the report however, is that, 58.6% of Ghanaians who ‘know something about Climate Change’, agrees that humans cause global warming and climate change.
In Northern Ghana (Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions), it is undeniably a fact, that the biggest cause of environmental degradation is uncontrolled or indiscriminate bush-burning by the people during the dry season.
Accordingly, the practice coupled with indiscriminate tree felling and charcoal production, is further exacerbating climate change effects in the area as desertification, crop failure, drought, rising temperatures, flood, among others in recent years, have been seriously manifesting.
In view of the aforementioned, the West Mamprusi District Assembly (WMDA) in the Northern Region in collaboration with the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has undertaken a six day intensive fire training for volunteers in Mishio and Zua communities.
The training was aimed at imparting fire fighting skill and knowledge on volunteers and equipping them to effectively manage and adequately control bushfires within their respective communities and beyond.
It was also intended to consolidate the district’s overall agenda of supporting the global efforts in fighting climate change whiles strengthening local civil society capacities in taking up their own initiatives in the fight against climate change in the country.
About 80 fire volunteers were trained and they were taught topics such as general knowledge on bush fires, methods of fighting bushfires, the effects of bushfires, bushfire control, foot drills/fire safety, field experiment and practice.
This was followed by a one day entire community level fire prevention sensitization to climax the training program. The participants were taught how to create fire belts and military drilling exercise in response to rapid fire outbreaks in their communities and their surroundings.
The fire volunteer squads training program which was the first in a series, is expected to be replicated in other communities upon a successful implementation of the project, according to officials of the District Assembly.
The WMDA with support from the Hanns-Seidel Foundation (HSF) in September last year launched a nine-month climate change adaptation and mitigation project, under which the district was expected to adopt reforestation initiatives in the Mishio and Zua communities aimed at fighting climate change and land degradation which are said to be severe in those areas.
Annual devastating bushfires in Northern Ghana usually begins in the month of November and intensifies in December to February. The practice usually result in the destruction of not only tree vegetation cover but also both harvested and non harvested farm produce, thereby causing food insecurity among the already impoverished Northern rural communities.
Meanwhile, at the end of the training, each fire volunteer received a pair of wellington boots, cutlass, fire protective clothing and hand gloves as their individual fire-fighting equipment.
The District Chief Executive for West Mamprusi District Assembly, Adam Yussif, reminded the two communities that the dry season was the peak of bushfires and urged them to be committed in the fight against bushfires so that the little farm produce that had been harvested by farmers will not go waste.
The DCE also advised the two communities not to farm close to the river banks and cautioned them to give proper care to the tree seedlings planted along the White Volta River in order to achieve the goals of the project.
For his part, the District Fire Officer Alexander Amoah, explained that the exposure of Northern Ghana to wildfires stemmed from the single rainfall season that the area experiences during the whole year.
According to him, the protracted dry season which follows the short rainy season causes the Savannah grass to wither and render it susceptible to the least spark of fire. “Judging by the annual devastation caused by bushfires, there is the urgent need for all stakeholders to jointly find feasible solutions to this perennial problem” Mr. Amoah added.
The West Mamprusi District Fire Officer was hopeful that the training would go a long way to reduce the wide spread bushfires in the area and the Northern Region as a whole.
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