By: Rachel Quartey
Friends of the Earth Africa (FoEA) a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) which is much concerned about the forest and the environmental welfare of the people, has engaged some farmers, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other community stakeholders at Akyem Kade, in the Kwaebibirem municipality of the Eastern Region.
The purpose is to educate them on how to protect their lands and fight for what belongs to them.
The workshop is also to sensitize the participants on their environmental rights and the need to protect the forest reserves in their various communities. This comes in the wake of challenges the community is currently facing as Ghana Oil Palm Development Company (GOPDC) has taken over their lands and properties without proper compensation and measure.
The inhabitants of the community who are mostly farmers said since 1995, they have been cheated by GOPDC, and the agreed compensations due them have not been regularly paid.
The farmers identified bad roads, lack of good water, and poor social amenities among others, as challenges facing them.
They complained that their livelihoods have been affected by these developments as they can no longer farm like they used to, in order to fend for themselves and their families.
“Farming on our own lands have become difficult because we have been banned from using fertilizer and using the water sources on the lands”, one of the farmers cried out.
The Forest & Biodiversity Programme Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Madam Rita Uwaka, assured participants, particularly the famers, that the organisation is ready to assist them get back their lands and or get the proper compensations due them.
The programme dubbed “Para-legal Training Workshop for Communities and CSOs for Carrying Out the Fight Against Land Grabbing and Monoculture Plantation in Africa” was spearheaded by Friends of the Earth Africa in collaboration with it’s Ghana and Togo chapters.
Earlier before the workshop, the environmental justice group, Friends of the Earth Africa (FoEA) met lawmakers within the sub-region on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Session of ECOWAS Parliament held at Winneba, Ghana.
Led by Madam Uwaka, the group raised some concerns in the wake of what they term the massive scramble for Africa’s forest lands by multinational corporations, who see Africa as a new gold mine to grab its resources.
The FoEA explained to the lawmakers the implications of different agreements signed by various governments in the sub-region in terms of concessions awarded to agro commodity companies.
“These commodity companies from different parts of the world see Africa as the new home for exploitation for capitalists investment, new colonialism and for all oppressive tendencies that undermine the right of the indigenous people in the local communities that are hosting our forests”, she said.
The environmental justice group argued that this development is having huge impact on the environment and Africans in general.
“We need to unmask the social environmental impact, the general impact on investment, that is why we are following up with the MPs; we are in Winneba to see some of them, they are important in our work and they play key role in decision making and they influence policies”, Madam Uwaka added.
FoEA therefore called for stricter legislation to protect lands, forests and the environment within the sub-region.
Madam Uwaka, said the meeting with the lawmakers was strategic because in the sub-region “we have a number of countries that are suffering the impact of agro commodities, example in Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone and other countries. So, it was strategic for the leadership, the Parliament and lawmakers to understand that the sub-region is being attacked by cooperations; it is not a development opportunity as they would want us to believe, she stated.
