By Jerry Azanduna / Janice Quandzie
BE/R, Sept. 18, GNA – Mr Dickson Adjei Sakyi, Bono East Regional Manager of the Forestry Service Department (FSD) of the Forestry Commission has lauded the implementation of the European Union’s Landscape and Environmental Agility Across the Nation (EU-LEAN) project to restore the nation’s eco-system.
He urged farmers in the project implementation areas to capitalise on the project, collect, plant and nurture trees alongside their farm work to mitigate climate change impact which was well felt in parts of the country.
Mr Sakyi explained the implementation of the project would not only protect the ecosystem but help the nation manage the changing weather patterns in climate change in the transitional, savannah and high forest landscapes.
The EU-funded project is putting in measures to lessen and combat the stress caused by climate change menace, especially with the unstable changing weather patterns by nursing and planting tree species including Emere, Mahogany, Ofrano, and cidrella.
Mr Sakyi explained the project implementation was a partnership with EcoCare and Tropenbos Ghana, which had enormous benefits for farmers in the enclave and called on the farmers to create an eco-friendly environment and mitigate climate change impacts.
The EU-LEAN project aims to support the government’s intervention to conserve biodiversity, assisting smallholder farmers with additional livelihood supports, building climate resilience and reducing land emissions from land-use changes across the country’s Savannah, High Forest, and Transition zones.
Mr Sakyi gave the advice when personnel of the EcoCare and Tropenbos, as well as World Vision Ghana and Rain Forest Alliance, its partners undertook a three-day verification visit to some of the project implementation sites in the Bono East Region.
As the project ends, the visit took them to project beneficiary communities in the Offinso Municipality, Offinso North District of the Ashanti, as well as Techiman North and Nkoranza South Districts and Nkoranza North Municipality of the Bono East Regions.
Mr Richard Asamoah, the owner of a 10-acre farm used as a restorative site for the project, indicated the project implementation had empowered beneficiary farmers extensively with the requisite knowledge on tree planting.
“We are therefore hoping for the sustainability of the project so that more farmers would also benefit too,” he stated.
Mr Kwame Frimpong Sekyere, the Project Manager, of Tropenbos Ghana, told the Ghana News Agency the visit was to enable them to ascertain the progress of the project so far, saying its implementation had impacted hugely on the local communities.
He said the EU-LEAN project had enlightened the farmers on adopting climate-smart agricultural practices, training them on the preparation of organic weedicide and compost processing to improve crop yields.
Mr Sekyere said through the project 5,000 farmers had benefited and raised 600,000 seedlings to restore the ecosystem.
The farmers had also benefited from alternative livelihood support including livestock keeping, piggery, beekeeping, snail rearing and others, he stated saying to ensure sustainability, Landscape Management Boards (LMB) had been set up at the various districts.
“As a measure to formalise the boards, we are providing them with logistics and offices as well as connecting them with other NGOs to keep the project running,” Mr Sekyere stated.
GNA