World Vision Ghana has launched a project to address major environmental barriers in selected landscapes across the savannah, high forest, and transitional ecological zones of Ghana in Damongo.
The project dubbed the Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation – LEAN, is being implemented by World Vision Ghana, the Rainforest Alliance (RA), Tropenbos Ghana (TBG), and EcoCare Ghana with funding from the European Union.
The implementing organisations will be working closely with a delegation from the EU, the private sector, local communities, and core national partners to catalyse systemic changes across three biodiversity significant and economically important landscapes to help translate the sustainability commitments into workable solutions.
The selected landscapes for the project are the High Forest Ecological Landscape which is the Western Zone B High Intervention area landscape, and the adjoining Sui River, the Transitional Landscape which falls under the Forest Savannah Transition landscape, and the Savanna landscape located in the Northern regions.
The overall objective is to enhance and improve conserving biodiversity, improving livelihoods, increasing climate change resilience, and reducing emissions from land-use changes in the landscapes.
The LEAN project will help to build collaborative, participatory, gender-sensitive, and informed decision-making processes at the local level with all relevant stakeholders across multiple sectors.
The project believes strong community-based governance structures will ensure that decisions are gender-sensitive, locally owned, with long-term uptake of agreements beyond the Action intervention.
Speaking at the project launch in Damongo, the cluster Manager of World Vision Ghana, Felix Apeti, said “the challenge of the massive deforestation and the resultant charcoal burning that has engulfed the West Gonja municipality and its environs is evident for all to see.”
He acknowledged the efforts being made by stakeholders to restore the environment in the Savannah Region.
“I admit the great work being done by our development partners in collaboration with the municipal assembly and security agencies to restore hope for our landscape.”
The Northern Operations Manager for World Vision, Timothy Aman-Bey Akanpabadai, said the focus of the project is to restore the forest and to ensure a system of governance at the local level that will cater for and reduce degradation.
The Assistant Park Manager of the Mole National Park, Bona Chire, described the LEAN Project as critical as it seeks to support poverty reduction in the project areas because of the direct impact it wants to make on farmers.
“Over the longer term, we know that it will help build sustainable economic development opportunities whilst increasing employment and economic inflows.”
