PLANT MORE TREES TO CHECK DESERTIFICATION — WAYONGO (PAGE 31, DEC 3)

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, has underscored the need for all residents in the region to grow more trees to check the spread of desertification which was threatening the future of the region.
He said in the face of climate change and its impact on humanity, there was the need for people, especially those living close to River White Volta, to increase the number of trees, particularly economic ones such as mango and cashew to help to reduce deforestation and also create incomes for members of the community.
Mr Woyongo made the call at the third Ghana Country Forum of Communities in the White Volta Basin, held at Zebilla in the Bawku West District.
The forum, which attracted participants from 13 communities along the White Volta Basin, was facilitated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, (IUCN).
Since 2004, the IUCN, a body of the United Nations, has been collaborating with the Water Resources Commission of Ghana and the Directorate General of Water Resources, (DGRE) of Burkina to implement the project for improvement in water governance in the Volta River Basin.
The Zebilla forum was, therefore, aimed at bringing the various stakeholders to share thoughts and experiences and also come out with an appropriate institutional framework for managing the White Volta Basin in a sustainable manner.
Mr Woyongo commended the IUCN for the intervention, particularly for supporting communities to raise over 15,000 seedlings which were planted along the banks of the White Volta and challenged all to ensure the survival of the seedlings to achieve the desired results.
He also appealed to other communities outside the project area to embrace the programme.
In his presentation, Mr Joachim A. Abungba of the of the Water Resources Commission said the second phase of the project for improving water governance in the Volta Basin within the framework of the local Trans-boundary Committee for Management of the White Volta sub-basin (CTGEN) necessitated coordinating the role of the Water Resources Commission (WRC) through the White Volta Basin Secretariat (WVBS) in the implementation of interventions in the selected communities.
He listed the specific objectives of the forum as the sensitisation of the people to the value of ecosystems, strengthening the capacity of river banks protection committees for effective management of interventions and the promotion of the ecosystem restoration in order to improve services for poverty reduction.
It also aims at supporting options for improved livelihoods of households, and the promotion of management mechanisms for enhanced project delivery.
Mr Abungba said the WRC-WVBS, together with implementing partners, organised formal entry visits into the communities in July 2009.
This drive created awareness and the needed environment for activity implementation in the communities.
He said in addition to that, the NGOs partnering the project, namely the BACH, which mobilised communities in the Bawku West District and BEWDA, which was responsible for communities in Bawku Municipality and Garu-Tempane District, also organised HIV/AIDS education and awareness campaigns for five communities in August 2009.
More than 300 community members participated in the programme.
According to him, Range Officers of the Forest Services Division also helped to train nursery attendants of the newly selected communities in nurseries management in August 2009, while the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) organised soil fertility management training programmes for all communities in August 2009. About 300 people benefited from this programme.
He said the late release of funding for project activity implementation, limited funding to cover the increasing number of communities and lack of means of transportation for the project coordinating institution (WRC-WVBS) were some of the challenges that militated against the smooth implementation of the project.
The communities that participated in the forum were, Mognori, Kugrasia, Nafkolga, Bazua, Googo, Kobore, Sakom, and Galaka.