The Chief of the Yameriga community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, Nab Kougbira-Maantihiig, has observed that the most reliable intervention to restore land degradation in the five regions of the north is through the Farmer Managed and Natural Regeneration (FMNR) concept.
The chief stressed that the land reclamation project was more efficient in the restoration of land degradation in the five regions of the North than the tree planting model.
He made the observation when the Sustainability Head of OLAM Food Ingredient, Mr Kennedy Ntoso, on Saturday donated 120 cutlasses to the beneficiaries of the FMNR at the Yameriga community on Friday.
The Chief stated that the FMNR which was introduced by World Vision Ghana (WVG) in the community in the year 2009 had not only helped reclaimed over 1,500 hectres of degraded lands in the area, but was also very instrumental in addressing the issues of climate change in the area.
Under the project, Community members are empowered, to use shackles and cutlasses to prune the shrubs and allow them to grow naturally to become forest reserves.
He intimated that for the government to realise her dreams of making Ghana green, there was the urgent need for the government to integrate the FMNR into the components of its tree planting exercise stressing “FMNR is not only cost effective, but the survival rates is higher than tree planting”
The Project Manager of World Vision Ghana in-charge of the FMNR, Mr Samuel Abasiba, stated that the Yameriga community had now become FMNR hub and learning centre where a lot of development partners troop in to learn and to practice.
He said due to the success story chalked by the project, it had been extended to many districts in the region and mentioned some of the beneficiary districts as Talensi, Garu, Tempani, Bawku West, Kassena-Nankana West.
The Project Manger explained that World Vision collaborated with stakeholders such as the Forestry Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, traditional and opinion leaders to implement the project.
The Project Manager of EU LEAN World Vision, Mr Joseph Edwin Yelkabong, explained that through a steering committee meeting organised by his outfit, some farmers from the West Gonja and Kassena-Nankana districts were selected to visit the learning centre of FMNR Hub at Yakort in the Talensi District so that they could replicate the concept in their respective communities.
He said plans were far advanced by those farmers who visited the learning centre to implement the FMNR in 10 communities in the Kassena-Nankana West and 10 communities at the West Gonja districts.
He stressed that building on the success of the project, a consortium of four namely Rain Forest Alliance, Tropenbos Ghana (TBG), EcoCare Ghana and World Vision Ghana (WVG) with funds from the European Union (EU) are implementing the project titled “Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation – LEAN”- which sets to address some major barriers in selected landscapes across the savannah, high forest and transitional ecological zones of Ghana.
