Association promotes tree planting

The Environmental Concerned Citizens Association of Ghana (ECCAG) has embarked on a nationwide tree planting exercise as a way of protecting the environment and to also reduce global warming.

The association in this regard has distributed plant seedlings to be planted in communities, schools, churches, along roadsides and water bodies, while ensuring wildlife conservation and promoting sanitation in the Western Region.

A statement issued by the Association Secretariat said the programme,
which was held in areas including the Shama Ahanta area, Mpohor Wassa West-Daboase and Ahanta West-Agona Nkwanta as well as Tarkwa Nsuam Municipality were in support of the clean and green Ghana education campaign.

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The painting is by Nancy Merkle

Ghana: Ghanaians Urged to Protect Environment

The Akyem Abuakwa Youth Movement (AAYoM), a on- partisan and religious youth-oriented human resource development capacity building organisation, has called on Ghanaians across the country, to cultivate the habit of planting, at least, one tree every year.

According to them, in order to preserve the trees, and other natural resources that were preserved by our predecessors, there was the need for Ghanaians to make it a point to replant those trees which were cut, for the sake of the survival of generations to come.

Quoting the popular cliché, when the last tree dies the last man will die, the Movement appealed to the good people of Ghana, not to lose sight of the fact that in our quest for survival, we should not endanger the existence and survival of the next generation, by degrading the environment.

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The painting is by Nancy Merkle

Minister bemoans fragmented forest ecosystem

Mrs. Esther Obeng Dapaah, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines has blamed the state, traditional and civil society organisations for the nation's highly fragmented forest ecosystem.

She said satellite images have revealed the fragmented forest system, which has consequently denied wild animals the requisite space to regenerate.

Mrs Dapaah made the observation in a speech read on her behalf at a national workshop at the University Ghana, Legon, to develop a framework for the establishment and management of Community Resources Management Areas.

The framework is to be incorporated into Ghana's Forest Master Plan, which is currently under review.

The CREMA, an initiative of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, has the aim of providing skills, capacity, and finance to communities to better handle and preserve the forest resources in the areas where a CREMA is established.

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Deforestation a key part of UN global treaty talks

AFIASO, Ghana (AP) — Years ago, no one thought twice about felling the rainforest around this village in West Africa.

Land was cleared, cocoa and palm oil were planted, and the hamlet survived. But the wind blows stronger across the fields and scrub these days, and the rainfall is heavier than the elders remember.

"Before, the weather wasn't so hot," says the village chief, Nana Opare Ababio.

Afiaso, with 620 people, is on the border of Ghana's Kakum National Park, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Accra, where a 160-nation U.N. conference is discussing how the issues of deforestation and conservation fit into a new global treaty on climate change.

As delegates ponder the big picture, sometimes it helps to see the direct impact these issues have on villages like Afiaso.

An estimated 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of forest are lost to loggers, farmers and fires every year, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Most of it is in the Amazon, in Southeast Asia and in West Africa.

Trees, and especially the diverse vegetation of tropical rainforests, soak up and store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. Decaying or burning trees releases carbon into the air. Scientists estimate that deforestation accounts for up to 20 percent of the carbon added by man to the atmosphere.

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Farmers Resist Newmont Operations in Ajenua Bepo Forest

Public Agenda (Accra)

31 March 2008
Posted to the web 31 March 2008

Selorm Amevor
Accra

A group calling itself the Concerned Farmers Association at New Abriem in the Eastern region have petitioned the government to withdraw the certificate given to Newmont Gold Ghana Limited (NGGL) to mine in the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve.

According to them the forest reserve is the watershed for important rivers such as Owo Nta , Alotosu , Aprapon, Adenkyensu and Yaayaa which serve the various needs of many of the people in the area especially in this era of water crises.

In a petition signed by 215 farmers to the government and its related agencies, they said the Ajenua Mountain, together with the forest area improves the rainfall pattern in the region, thus boosting agriculture.

"Improved rainfall is important to us because as a people , we are predominately farmers and we know that agriculture would suffer greatly if mining is undertaken in the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve," They added.

They indicated that the forest reserve is the home for many animals, birds, butterflies and important trees and plants species which provide sustainable medicinal benefits that maintain the ecosystem and serve as a store of biodiversity.

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