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GHANA
From farmer to farmer
We train farmers (male and female) on regenerating trees on community land and farmland. These so-called "Champion Farmers" share their knowledge with their entire village community. We support them in creating demonstration plots and organize visits to communities that are already successfully practicing FMNR.
Less deforestation
We distribute wood-saving stoves, introduce savings groups, hold agricultural courses and create additional sources of income. As a result, the population is no longer dependent on cutting down trees to sell firewood.
More food
The program currently includes 2 drought-affected communities in the Upper East Region. Our work aims to combat food shortage and to improve the quality of life - especially for around 400 women, who are the focus of the project.
ECO clubs for students
Together with our project partner FONAR, we work in 15 schools in northern Ghana. In the context of creatively designed school clubs, the youth sensitized to regreening. In addition, each Eco Club undertakes various community activities, such as growing trees on community land.
Trainings for teachers
In workshops lasting several days, teachers and headmasters acquire extensive knowledge about regenerating trees. Pedagogical methods are also practiced in order to pass this awareness on to the younger generation in the best possible way.
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Public campaings
For a message to reach society, it must be conveyed through all possible channels. Our story of hope reaches a wide audience in the form of posters, theater plays, demonstration plots and gatherings.
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Hope for Ghana
Sumaila Seidu Saaka (Director FONAR) describes:
Ghana lies between the Atlantic and the Sahel
"Ghana, formerly known as the “Gold Coast”, sits on the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa and borders Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. The country, about the size of the United Kingdom, is home to more than 30 million people.
More than a third of the population is under 15 years old. In the past two decades, it has taken major strides toward consolidating democracy governance under a multi-party system.
Ghana consistently ranks in the top three countries in Africa for freedom of speech and press freedom, with strong broadcast media, with radio being the medium with the greatest reach. Factors such as these provide Ghana with solid social capital."
Reversing Land Degradation for improved livelihoods in the Upper East Region, Ghana
"The Upper East Region (UER) is one of 16 administrative regions of Ghana. It is located in a semi-dry agro-ecological zone that lies in the transitional zone between the dry Guinea and Sudan savannah grassland parts of West Africa bordering the Sahel. The region covers an estimated land area of 8,842 km², of which 80% suffers from moderate to severe land degradation.
The UER had a total population of roughly 1.04 million people in 2010, with an annual growth rate of about 1.2 percent. The average population density of the region is 118.4 people/km², as compared to the national average population density of 103.4 people/km². The mainly rural population of the UER, where more than four in every 10 people are poor, is dependent on rain-fed subsistence agriculture.
Desertification resulting from rapid environmental degradation due to negative land clearing practices has been identified as the most serious environmental problem in the region. The livelihoods of rural farm households are thus threatened by increasing agricultural drought and loss of soil fertility."
Visions of a better future
"The Forum for Natural Regeneration (FONAR) is a Ghanaian registered environmental non-profit and non-government organization (NGO), currently operating in the Upper East region of Ghana. FONAR was founded in 2014 to promote the widespread adoption of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) as a simple and cost effective technique for the restoration & re-vegetation of degraded lands in the communities in which we work.
We do this through social mobilisation, advocacy and nurturing genuine partnership. The main reason for loss of tree cover in the Upper East region of Ghana, where we work, is clearance of land for agriculture using the traditional “slash and burn” method.
To reverse the trend, FONAR works with local communities and its partners to promote the uptake of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) for re-greening degraded farmlands and communal lands and working through school environmental clubs to inculcate positive environmental behaviours in the youth."
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