The Paramount Queenmother of the Sing Traditional Area and Ambassador for the Shea Park Resource Hub Project, Pognaa Salma Chaana Abdul-Razak, has concluded an extensive sensitisation and stakeholder engagement tour across all 11 districts of the Upper West Region aimed at promoting environmental conservation and strengthening the economic livelihoods of women in the shea value chain.
The five-day tour, held from May 17 to May 21, 2026, was executed by Green Gold Savannah, the implementing partner for the Ambassador’s project team, as part of efforts to build grassroots support for the Shea Park Resource Hub Project. The primary objective was to educate local populations, actively involve traditional leaders, and engage key stakeholders, particularly grassroots women shea pickers, to advocate for the strict enforcement of local bylaws protecting the shea tree and other economic plants.
Over the course of the tour, the Ambassador and her team visited a total of 17 communities, directly engaging more than 2,000 women shea pickers. On Grassroots Dialogues and Alternate Livelihoods, the tour provided a vital platform for the women who are the backbone of the local shea economy to share their thoughts on sustainable alternate livelihoods that could serve as viable substitutes to the destructive practice of felling shea trees for charcoal burning.
During these highly interactive sessions, the women expressed a strong desire to protect their environment but highlighted the need for critical support systems to make the transition sustainable.
Key requests and ideas raised by the communities included: Agricultural Support: Provision of small dams to enable all-year-round farming. Skill Development & Trade: Support and training for soap making, weaving, and hairdressing.
Industrial Equipment & Logistics: Processing machines for shea butter production, tricycles to assist women in transporting gathered shea nuts, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect them from hazards like snakebites in the bush.
Market & Financial Access: Secure buyers for their finished shea butter and a lowinterest loan system to provide reliable capital for their small businesses.
The field tour has been widely hailed as a major success, fostering deep communal ownership of the Shea Park Resource Hub Project. In a collective show of appreciation, the traditional leaders, women shea pickers, and community members expressed their immense gratitude to the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament and H.E. the President of the Republic of Ghana for their visionary leadership in establishing the Shea Park Resource Hub Project.
They noted that this initiative holds the potential to completely transform the economic landscape of the north while safeguarding the environment for future generations.
With the tour concluded, Green Gold Savannah and the Office of the Shea Park Project
Ambassador are set to review the feedback and data gathered to inform the next phase of project implementation.
Media Contact:
Daniel Faabelangne Banuoku (Media Relations Officer/Project Coordinator)
Green Gold Savannah / Office of the Shea Park
Resource Hub Ambassador
0240974461
greengoldsavanna@gmail.com
