By Joyce Gyekye
Logging within the Savannah zone of the country is hampering economic activities of women in the shea butter business.
This is because trees including rosewood that serve as windbreaks for shea trees are being cut, hence preventing the shea trees from fruiting.
A Deputy National Director of Arocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu in an interview with GBC News said the organization’s programme of sustaining the Savannah vegetation by promoting diversity of tree species is being thwarted by illegal logging. Daryl Bosu spoke with Joyce Gyekye on how the organization is addressing climate change in its project areas.
”Logging within the Savannah zone of Ghana is hampering economic activities of women in the shea butter business. This is because trees including rosewood that serve as windbreaks for shea trees are being cut, hence preventing shea trees from fruiting.
Daryl Bosu said all Arocha’s activities are nature-based solutions to environmental issues including climate while addressing the economic factors underpinning most environmental issues. Daryl Bosu noted that Shea trees constitute a major part of the tree diversity in the Savannah zone and also an economic tree species for a long time.
“Instead, if they cut any tree, they will never touch the Shea tree but we have seen recent actions where because of the peoples quest for money, some for other livelihood reasons have been cutting some of these trees for charcoal and that is leading to the loss of income for women”.
Mr. Bosu said one cannot address people’s livelihood if they also don’t look at how the dynamics of other trees have on people and this is all connected.
On reclaiming degraded mangroves within the Muni- Pomadze Ramsar Site in the Central region, Mr. Bosu noted how the organization is engaging Communities in replanting mangroves in the area.
”Mangoes provide all of us a natural base approach to addressing the increasing sea level raises and also some of the strong sea waves that really destroy our coastal areas. Again, these mangrove areas are also habitat for a lot of fish species, ……also the nesting grounds for several critically endangered species. So these ecosystems are really crucial and our main objective is to ensure that we bring the awareness of the people to understand that mangroves are crucial for them not only for fire wood, but for mitigation of climate change”.