EcoCare Ghana partners Forestry Commission, sixty communities to restore forests and water bodies in Bono East

EcoCare Ghana, a non-governmental organisation and implementer of the Landscapes and Environmental Agility Across the Nation (LEAN) project, has signed an agreement with the Forestry Commission and sixty local communities to safeguard forest reserves and water bodies within Ghana’s transitional landscape.

The agreement seeks to strengthen collaboration between the Forest Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission and local government authorities to curb illegal logging and forest-related infractions, as well as to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Thousands of smallholder farmers from 60 communities across six districts in the Ashanti and Bono East regions have been selected to participate in the initiative.

The agreement promises several benefits and incentives for participating communities, conditional upon their compliance with its terms.

Outlining these benefits, Enoch Danso Okyere, Project Manager for EcoCare Ghana, said,
“Communities that comply with the terms and conditions will gain access to a full-scale nursery facility equipped with all necessary tools. We will provide them with free seedlings for re-greening activities.

“EcoCare, in collaboration with the FSD and District Assemblies, will also ensure that communities actively involved in climate action within the project’s jurisdiction receive their share of any future funds accrued from carbon stocks, as outlined in the Benefit Sharing Plan (BSP).”

Jonathan Obour Wiredu, Deputy Bono East Regional Director of the Forestry Commission, expressed his appreciation to EcoCare Ghana.

“The LEAN project has significantly enhanced our efforts at the Bono East Forestry Commission. Our mandate to protect forest reserves, rehabilitate degraded areas, and educate the public on environmental conservation has been greatly supported through this initiative. We are truly grateful and hopeful that the community will value this collaboration,” he said.

Tree planting and restoration

Jonathan Wiredu further lauded the LEAN project for helping to restore large expanses of degraded forests, noting that several tree species once nearing extinction have now been replanted.

“I can confidently say that, thanks to this project, Ghanaians will be able to harvest their own timber sustainably in the coming years,” he stated.

He also appealed to the European Union, the funding agency behind the LEAN project, to continue supporting such interventions.

Leaders from various LEAN beneficiary communities who attended the signing ceremony expressed optimism about the agreement.

“We now feel confident that our work has been institutionalised and legally protected,” said Naa Yelle Jian, a project beneficiary.

The collaborative initiative, according to all signing partners, forms part of the LEAN project’s broader objective to protect and conserve biodiversity through the restoration of degraded landscapes.

The project also aims to promote climate-smart agricultural practices in efforts to reclaim lost forest cover in the transitional landscape.

Report by Dauda Zul-Kiful for Asaase News in the Bono East Region

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