The Environment and Agroforestry Foundation (EAF), an environmental non-for-profit making organisation in Sunyani, has organised a capacity building workshop on restoring farmlands and riparian ecosystem and livelihood improvement in the Bono Region.
Attended by about 100 participants, including 70 participating farmers from beneficiary communities, the occasion was also used to launch the six-year project for implementation in four selected communities-Namasua, Oforikrom, Tainso and Berekum in the Berekum East Municipality of the Bono Region.
Held at Berekum on Friday, other participants were representatives of the project’s stakeholders in the Berekum East Municipality and beyond.
They comprised the Forest Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission (FC), the local Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the Ghana National Fire Service, the Municipal Assembly, traditional authorities of the four beneficiary communities, the leadership of Fulani herdsmen, the media and Green Waterhut, an environmental and water conservation non-governmental organisation in Sunyani.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mrs. Emma Baah-Agyapong, the Founder and a Director of the EAF, announced the project was being financed by TerraFund for AFR100, an international funding consortium established in 2021 and consist of World Resources Institute, One Tree Planted, Realize Impact and Barka Fund.
TerraFund for AFR100 aims to provide financing and support to local communities involved in land restoration.
Touching on EAF’s partnership with TerraFund for AFR100, Mrs. Baah-Agyapong said “TerraFund will invest US$2.75 million and seek to grow 1.9 million trees (14,000 hectares) along the Ghana Cocoa Belt, create 4,500 jobs and improve the livelihoods of 29,000 people.”
According to her the EAF’s project (restoring farmland and riparian ecosystem and livelihood improvement in the Bono Region) comprised five major goals to “restore 150 hectares of admitted farm in Oforikrom close to Tain River and Tain II forest reserve within six years”.
Others goals, she added, were development of 100 hectares farmland – adopting agroforestry to plant cashew interspersed with food crops and beehives, restoration of 50 hectares riparian forest-enrichment planting of indigenous trees – mahogany, ofram, emire and cedrella.
Mrs. Baah-Agyapong added besides the restoration of 128,210 trees, the project further aimed to provide employment to about 120 local community members.
Later in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr. Samuel Ofori, TerraFund’s Project Manager, Ghana stated “TerraFund for AFR100 Team is pleased to welcome the EAF to cohort 2 of TerraFund’s 15 Restoration Champions working within Ghana’s Cocoa landscape.”
Mr. Ofori said the EAF’s efforts involving the planting of more than 128,210 tree seedlings on Ghana’s cocoa landscape would significantly contribute to the broader AFR100 goal of restoring 100 million hectres of Africa’s degraded landscape by 2030.
He said the EAF’s project would create employment opportunities and other socio-economic benefits for the local communities, particularly women and the youth and expressed optimism of seeing the positive impact of its work in the region.
GNA
