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A total of 58,000 Ghanaian farmers are benefitting from the Ghana Landscape and Restoration of Small-Scale Mining Project, an integrated project which aims at sustaining agricultural productivity and addressing small-scale mining issues in Ghana.
Aimed at dealing with degraded arable lands within the agriculture landscape, forest reserves, biological corridors and national parks, the project is operational in eight regions and 26 districts across the country.
Targeted at 582 communities, with the minimum number of districts within a community being 18 and a maximum of 20, the maximum number of communities has been projected to increase.
Under the project, old cocoa trees are being replaced with new ones, accompanied by massive afforestation exercises in forest reserves.
Funded with a loan from the World Bank, a grant from Progreen and the Global Environment Facility, with a budget portfolio of 103 million dollars, the Ghana Landscape and Restoration of Small-Scale Mining Project is divided into two thematic areas, namely landscape restoration which is under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, with the small scale mining being manned by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
The implementers are the Forest Service Division of the Forestry Commission, the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, COCOBOD, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with Land Use and Spatial Planning, the Water Resources Commission (WRC) and the World Resource Institute of Washington.
The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ophelia Mensah Hayford, last Wednesday visited Kwabeng as part of a familiarising tour, where she met farmers in the Asante Akyem South Municipality and later met farmers at Asiwa in the Bosome Freho District, all in the Ashanti Region.
The minister, who doubles as the Member of Parliament for the Mfantseman Constituency, disclosed that the government aimed to restore lands which have been degraded in Ghana, hence the introduction of the programme, emphasising that the state would like to know the impact the exercise has had on the activities of farmers in areas where the project was being rolled out.
She said the government was aware of the ravaging impact of climate change on farmers, which was why the programme was introduced.
"We know that the world is battling climate change, following human activities that have affected rainfall patterns and the weather. As such, we have to undertake measures to reverse this development for a good climate and thereby predicting right and doing right,” she said.
This the sector minister told the farmers, could be achieved by embarking on afforestation since trees had myriad benefits and in addition could help shape the conditions of Ghanaian water bodies which were increasingly getting polluted.
The coordinator for the Ghana Landscape and Restoration of Small-Scale Mining Project, Issac Charles Acquah, said the objective of the project was to sustain Ghana's natural resources, under the care of communities.
"The project is to sustainably manage Ghana’s natural resources. To increase benefits to the communities. Communities will assist us in managing the natural resources sustainably and communities will benefit from the project," he said.
He emphasised that the landscape was not meant for galamsey operations, but for dealing with lands that were degraded within the agriculture landscape, within the forest reserves and the biological corridors and national parks.
