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Reversing Desertification Through Communal Fruit Tree Plantations In Upper West Region

By Coalition For Change Ghana
Press Release Reversing Desertification Through Communal Fruit Tree Plantations In Upper West Region
SEP 27, 2016 LISTEN

It is usual for remote dwellers in the northern parts of Ghana to cut trees for livelihoods. Some especially women do so for charcoal, firewood and lately timber logging. However, an initiative by the Coalition for Change (C4C) in collaboration with the Jacobs Well Appeal –UK (JWA-UK) is righting the wrongs on the environment.

Their target is to liaise with communities to plant and care for fruit trees to benefit the communities. From August to September this year, they have engaged a remote community east of Wa the capital of the Upper West region to pilot the planting of mangoes and moringa seedlings. A total of 330 seedlings of mango (220) and moringa (110) were planted with the people of Kpaliworgu.

The community was trained on trees/environmental protection and the proper way of planting and raising trees. The community provided the land, poles and manpower for the plantation whilst JWA through C4C provided the seedlings, fencing and trainings. The seedlings will be looked after by the community for the next two years until they mature. Once the trees start fruiting, the community can harvest to supplement their fruit intake as well as sell some for developmental projects.

Kpaliworgu was chosen as it has one of the remaining lush vegetation in the region with timber logging currently taking place; it was to show the community that good environmental practices are very crucial for the continual survival of our planet, thus, the indiscriminate cutting of trees for charcoal, firewood and timber purposes will eventually halt human existence if not curbed.

Community members especially the school children were involved in the whole process which lasted for a month. Involving the school children was to teach them also the importance of protecting the environment.

C4C believes that one of the best ways to protect the environment is to support the people whose livelihoods depend on tree and environmental destruction alternatives to earning income instead of the usual felling of trees for charcoal and firewood usage. Through this belief, C4C partnered with JWA to protect the environment and promote an alternative way of generating income through fruit tree planting.

About Coalition for Change (C4C): it is a non-governmental organization which aims to raise secured families using ecologically sustainable local farm base strategies, adaptable income generating activities and available forms of educations as means of closing poverty gap in Ghana. The C4C team up with poor households within deprived communities to eliminate identified forms of obstruction to the full attainment of basic human stateliness through participatory approaches to reduce poverty using gender mainstreaming, self-help communal spirit and promoting quality education.

About Jacob’s Well Appeal-UK: it is a Christian-based charity in the UK whose mantra is to change the world one life at a time through environmental, health, water and agricultural interventions.

Kpalworgu Community PlantationKpalworgu Community Plantation

School PlantationSchool Plantation

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