Two Communities In West Mamprusi Combat Land Degradation Through Tree Planting

As part of the ongoing joint implementation of a nine-month climate change adaptation and mitigation project in Zua and Mishio Communities by the West Mamprusi District Assembly and the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation (HSF), about 14,500 acacia, mahogany, and other tree species have been procured for planting.

The project dubbed: “Fighting climate change through re-forestation” has the overall goal of increasing tree population in order to effectively combat desertification in the West Mamprusi District and further contribute to the ongoing global effort in the fight against climate change.

The project also seeks to create awareness, support community members with alternative livelihood occupations and further strengthen civil society capacity to take up their own initiatives in the fight against climate change.

According to the West Mamprusi District Coordinating Director, Alhaji Inusah Abubakari, the Assembly on behalf of the two community beneficiaries requested financial support of Sixteen Thousand, Forty-Eight Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 16,048.00) from the HSF to procure the seedlings for the immediate planting in Zua and Mishio communities.

“The said amount requested from the HSF, would be used to procure 14,500 acacia, mahogany among other seedlings, purposely for the river banks. The number of seedlings to be procured is based upon the Forestry Services Division resource person professionals’ advice, ” he explained.

Alhaji Abubakari also noted that the financial assistance requested from the HSF would be used to pay for the services of the Forestry Services Division officers who would lead and be directing the planting as well as the per diem of Project and Deputy Project Coordinators during each visits to the two communities. Adding, “The community supporting members who will volunteer to prepare and plant the seedlings, would also be provided with breakfast and lunch.”

The Coordinating Director further explained that mango seeds would also be procured next year for planting along the river banks since they are drought resistant and their fruits could be used for economic income to support the livelihoods of the people.

The acacia and mahogany are flood resistant as their roots store more water than normal trees, he indicated stressing that, they would be planted close to the river banks.

Meanwhile, the tree planting targets the degraded lands along the White Volta River Basin in the Zua and Mishio communities whose tree population drastically reduced due to intensive farming activities carried out all year round by the local community farmers. Thus, the planting of the tree plants would increase the tree population to provide vegetative cover to the White Volta Basin and have the potentials of meeting future energy, atheistic and medicinal needs of the two communities.

SANREC – The Biggest Environmental Coalition In Northern Ghana Outline Its Plans

One of the most serious environmental problems in Northern Ghana currently, is desertification – the result of several negative human activities such as indiscriminate tree felling, charcoal production, sand and gravel winning and bush burning among others.

Comprising of Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions, Northern Ghana constitutes about 50% of the total land mass of the entire country.

The 1952 forest inventory record of Ghana indicated that the total tree cover in the three regions was 41,600km2, representing 46% of the total land area of the North. However, by 1996 approximately 40% of the woodland was estimated to have been exposed to acute soil erosion and other human activities, meaning that about 38,000 hectares of tree cover are lost yearly in Northern Ghana.

With these negative developments, it is obvious that the Northern Savannah area (Northern Ghana) is constantly under threat of degradation and desertification due to unsustainable management of the environment and natural resources.

The situation is further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, increasing vulnerability of the people in the North. This is evidenced by residents mostly women and children walking long distances each day in search of water and firewood for their domestic use. Also, the drying up of rivers and gradual decline in agricultural production in recent years are adversely affecting household income levels and livelihoods.

It is therefore, not surprising the three regions of the North top the list of the poorest regions in Ghana.

Thus, as the issue of climate change or global warming now considered a topical subject for discussion at various levels of governmental and intergovernmental forums as well as international conferences such as the annual COP 17 by all nations across the globe, countries in Africa (the most affected by climate change effects) and CSOs are leaving no stone unturned to avert the worsening situation.

For this reason, Ghana as a developing nation and as part of the global efforts to combat desertification and climate change, has taken bold steps to avert some of the worse forms of disasters that these negative environmental problems could bring to her people especially Northerners.

For instance, the Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP) has been designed to realize the objectives of the National Action Plan (NAP) for drought and desertification, while the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) has also been established to address the reduction of vulnerability due to the environmental degradation and disasters such as annual perennial flooding, drought, hunger, destruction of buildings, death of humans and domestic animals by floods, high temperatures, among others.

This effort by government is further complemented by some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that are into natural resources and environmental governance issues. They are vigorously and seriously advocating through workshops, stakeholder forums and community durbars to ensure that the government does the right thing with regards to fighting negative environmental practices mostly perpetuated by multinationals in the extractive industry (mining and petroleum sector) timber companies and individuals or groups by enforcing the country’s laws.

In Northern Ghana, the Savannah Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Coalition (SANREC), an initiative of the Northern Ghana Network for Development (NGND) has brought together CSOs working in the areas of environmental governance and natural resources management in the three regions of the North.

The Coalition aims at approaching environmental governance issues and natural resources management in a concerted manner, creating a platform to sharing experiences and undertaking joint advocacy efforts to address environmental and natural resources management problems in the three regions. SANREC currently comprises of over 40 CSOs from the three regions including the Media Advocates for Sustainable Environment (MASE).

Vision

“A voice for an environment that sustains the livelihoods of men and women of the Northern Savannah.”

Mission

“A vibrant environmental coalition advocating for sustainable environmental management practices through transparent and responsible networking for the benefit of men and women in the Northern Savannah of Ghana.”

Objectives

1. Strengthen the capacities of members on Natural Resources and Environmental Governance (NREG) policies and programmes.
2. Promote evidence based advocacy on NREG policies and programmes
3. Enhance participation and social inclusion in environment and natural resource governance.
4. Establish an effective and supportive platform for coalition members
5. Create a financially sustainable coalition.

Strategies

• Enhance coalition members’ knowledge in NREG policies and programmes
• Promote networking amongst members and other networks
• Establish a resource centre for the media, coalition members and the general public
• Conduct environmental and natural resource-based research
• Contribute to policy formulation and implementation
• Establish an alliance with the media to advocate NRE (Natural Resources and Environment) issues
• Formulate policy on gender, inclusion and participation
• Build capacities of vulnerable groups to participate in policy formulation and implementation
• Advocate for the inclusion and participation of the vulnerable groups and communities in the formulation of policies on the environment
• Institute a mechanism for the coalition’s engagement with duty bearers on NRE issues
• Create a forum for information and experience sharing among SANREC members
• Embark on rigorous fundraising for SANREC operations
• Establish a transparent and accountable financial management system

Meanwhile, a three (3) year strategic document that was validated recently at a day’s workshop identified some important stakeholders it hopes to work with. It named Traditional Authorities, women and girls, youth groups, farmer-based organizations, crop and livestock farmers, children and commercial charcoal and wood producers as its primary stakeholders.

The document also cited its secondary stakeholders as allies, collaborators and partners that have the potential to support its work. They comprise of farmer-based organizations and community-based organizations.

Others include Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), District Environmental Management Committees (DEMCs), National Disaster Management Organisations (NADMO), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wildlife Division, Forestry Commission, Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Ghana Police Service, Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), University for Development Studies (UDS) and Animal Research Institute, Development Partners, Ministries and Agencies among others.

Making Impact on Female Education Felt In Northern Ghana – CAMFED Shows The Way

Education of the girl child is now globally considered as the best way to empower women particularly in Africa where some long cherished traditions or socio-cultural practices, have for decades, relegated women to the background by making them act as only home-keepers.

In the Northern part of Ghana for instance, most women until recent years, were exclusively confined to only the kitchen where society thought was the only place they were useful to their families aside marrying and giving birth to their husbands later in life.

In most situations, they did not and still do not have a say with regard to their right to reproductive health (number of children to give birth to), when to marry, right to own a business, land or property.

As a result, the number of well educated men across the length and breadth of the three regions of the North – Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions – is more than women.

Luckily, positive initiatives from World Food Programme (WFP) and the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) that supported school feeding programmes whereby girls are targeted in poor performing areas such as Upper East and Upper West, have resulted in narrowing the gap between girls and boys gross enrollment figures in these areas.

UNICEF also contributed to these results with the assistance to 15 districts with lowest Gender Parity Index (GPI) to improve enrolment and retention of girls. The female enrolment figures in Upper East and Upper West grew by 31.4% and 26.1% respectively, compared to the national average of 12.8%. The abolition of school fees in all basic schools in 2005 also had a direct effect on girls’ enrolment rates. Consequently, provisional data showed an improvement of the GPI for Primary Gross Enrolment from 0.93 in 2004/2005 to 0.95 in 2005/2006.

But, despite these positive trends, the country was not able to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of achieving gender parity by 2005. Several regions of Ghana experienced significant gaps between the number of boys and girls in school. Disparities were particularly sharp in the Northern Region. In this region only about 65% of girls are enrolled, compared to 77% of boys. In several districts of the Northern Region fewer than half of primary school-age girls are enrolled.

Interestingly, with enormous support from some international non-governmental organizations like Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED-Ghana), there now seems to be more hope towards improving the education of females in Northern Ghana.

CAMFED-Ghana works in 20 districts in the Northern, Upper East and Central Regions of Ghana in the areas of women empowerment through education of female children, micro credit schemes, advocating for the inclusion of women in decision making process at the district level, career and entrepreneurship development, ICT training and among others. T

In its attempt to complement government’s efforts to improve upon the quality of education in the country especially in Northern Ghana, CAMFED-Ghana has multiplied girls’ educational opportunities under its education programme, supporting girls from poor families with bursary packages to go to school.

At the organisation’s 2011 Annual General Meeting held in Tamale under the theme “Our Performance: Impacting on Quality Education”, it emerged that 4500 girls from Junior and Senior High Schools in the Northern Region alone were given free exercise books, pens, notebooks, uniforms, sanitary pads, sandals, school fees, among others this year.

Also, 167 schools benefitted from 179 safety net grants estimated at GH¢27,960.00 set aside for the provision of school uniforms, exercise books, footwears and school bags for boys and girls at basic school level.

Besides, another 1,250 new beneficiaries in 6 districts were selected to receive bursary support and they include Bongo, Garu-Tempane, Kassena-Nankana in Upper East and Mfantseman, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese and Gomoa West Districts districts in the Central Region.

The NGO also made effort to improve upon the learning environment of schools through enormous investment in school resources, teacher monitoring and establishment of safer schools fund. Under this programme, 25 schools benefitted from 25 grants totaling GH¢12,500.00 for construction of urinary pits, electrification of schools/classrooms, procurement of water storage facilities, and provision of classroom furniture.

Furthermore, CAMFED-Ghana made donations to schools which include 4 Senior and 2 Junior High Schools in the Nanumba North, Nanumba South, Chereponi and Karaga Districts which received 22 brand new computers worth GH¢27,000.00 whereas 4 Senior and 8 Junior High Schools as well as 4 Primary Schools in Karaga, Chereponi, Nanumba North and South Districts received a total of 1,008 textbooks and supplementary readers.

The organization also presented Home Economics practical items such as blenders, microwave ovens, crockery, gas ovens, gas cookers, cutlery, sewing machines, gas cylinders, fridges, deep freezers, among others to 22 Senior High Schools in 10 districts worth GH¢55,000.00.

Additionally, CAMFED-Ghana donated 2000 textbooks covering various elective subjects worth GH¢42,000.00 to 22 Senior High Schools in eight districts. This include science laboratory equipments worth GH¢14,800 donated to 2 Senior High Schools in 2 districts and 20 selected teacher mentors from Upper East trained to provide psychological support to bursary beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the AGM brought together various stakeholder groups formed by CAMFED-Ghana under the various programmes it is rolling out in beneficiary districts. They include District Education Committees (DECs), Teacher Mentors, Camfed Association (Cama) members and Mother Support Groups.

The AGM was intended to reflect on activities carried out in 2011, consider the achievements and chart a way forward in the coming year with a strong commitment to make more impact.

The Executive Director of CAMFED-Ghana, Mrs. Dolores Dickson, said the organization spent a whopping sum of GH¢2.5 million in various programmes benefitting girls, young women and schools.

“During the 2010/2011 academic year, we increased the number of girls on our bursary programme from 4000 to 4500, all of whom were full scholarship covering school fees, uniforms, footwears, bags, notebooks, sanitary pads, soap and dry food ration for those in hostels, she said adding that, without this support these girls would have had difficulty meeting the cost of their education, resulting in some dropping out of school.”

Mrs. Dickson expressed profound appreciation to the Ghana Education Service for the support it provided the organization.