Launching of “Regenerating and Preserving the Atewa Forest Reserve” Project
Noé and its local partner, A Rocha Ghana on April 29th, 2021 held a mini inauguration of the project “Regenerating and preserving the Atewa Forest Reserve”. The one-year project funded by Ciel d’Azur aims to ensure the sustainable management of the Atewa forest, by and for the benefit of local communities, through the strengthening of community-based natural resource management organisations. The project which starts April 2021 and expected to end March 2022 is part of the second phase of Noé’s flagship EconoBio programme which will officially start in July 2021 and last for a period of three and a half years in the Atewa Landscape.
The event which took place in the Owuratwum, one of the communities in the Atewa CREMA (Community Resource Management Area) marks the start of series of meetings to be held with the local communities towards the implementation of the project. In attendance to the inaugural meeting are representatives of landowners, cocoa farmers, nursery workers, CREMA executives, chief and opinion leaders and women groups.
The occasion provided the space for the community members to take ownership of the project.
“We are willing and ready to protect our remaining forest” is a statement expressed by one of the CREMA Executives.
This clearly shows the motivation of the local communities towards the management of their natural resources.
With the participation of the local communities, the project will plant 35,000 trees over the one-year period to restore degraded areas within the forest and the core zones of the community managed forest, rehabilitate abandoned mining areas and riverbanks, and promote agroforestry by providing seedlings to farmers to plant in their cocoa fields.
In the global ECONOBIO framework, the project will contribute to:
Strengthen biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of 17,400 hectares of forest by local communities through reforestation, establishment of community patrols and environmental awareness creation;
Contribute to the development of sustainable economic sectors (certified organic cocoa, Non-Timber Forest Products) allowing communities to increase their sources of income and protect the Atewa forest and its exceptional biodiversity;
Build capacity of civil society actors and disseminate the knowledge and lessons learned from the project.
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