Nature and Development Foundation (NDF) and Tropenbos Ghana (TBG), both civil society organisations (SCOs), have organised a training exercise for forest monitors in the Western North Region.
The training was done with funding from European Union as part of CSO’s implementation projects on the theme ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Non-state Actors (NSAs) to improve Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).
The exercise was aimed significantly at educating the farmers on the need to support the reduction in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, whilst at the same time addressing threats that undermine ecosystem services and environmental integrity.
Mr Kofi Abu, the National Coordinator of Tropenbos Ghana, while welcoming the participants to the training, said reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation had received World Bank support, and that the conservation of carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks were other areas of concern.
“The meeting is just to orient the monitors to let them know that there are a lot of things that are ongoing that they can take advantage of and we thought the farmer should be aware and approach it well.
Touching on what the REDD+ means he said the concept is about “reducing emission and try to reduce the rate of deforestation so we add the plus because it transcend beyond just planting of trees, it comes with a lot of policy shift that affect we the community protection direct decision against the depletion of our forest.”
The training, he added, was to orient the monitors to come together with the understanding of the good things that happening in terms of planting trees, and how they could take opportunities involved.
He expressed satisfaction about the rate of turn out at the training. When you look at our close forest, we have had an improvement in terms of felling trees and the depletion of the forest reserves; we expect that the communities will take interest in planting trees so that together we can protect the remainder of our forest.
Get closer to us
The Assistant Director of Forestry at Sefwi Wiawso (Name) also shared with the participants the available regulations and how the monitors and the farmers could work hand in hand so together they could achieve their goal.
He explained to the participants the necessary tools available to the commission and how they could strike a positive partnership to augment the efforts being made to improve things.
Team work
Rhoda Donkor, from the Climate Change Secretariat of the Forestry Commission, discussed with the participants the socio economic benefits of REDD+.
Ms Donkor demonstrated to the gathering how significant individual institutions’ role was beneficial to the collective interest of all. She said the role of chiefs, opinion leaders, courts, the police stations, the Lands Commission and the Ghana National Fire Service among others could all collaborate to achieve positive results.
Beneficiary communities
The farmer participants were drawn from Aboboyaa, Bedii, Amafie, Nsinsem, Sayerano, Elluokrom, Kwame-Tawiah-Krom, Paboase and Datano, all in the Western North Region.
In Ghana, the mechanism is being coordinated by the National REDD+ Secretariat hosted by the Forestry Commission with other stakeholders like the NDF and Tropenbos as well as MDAs, MMDAs, CSO/NGO, Local communities, Traditional Authority and the private sector.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Muntalla Inusah