Dear Tropenbos Ghana,
As far back as Sunday, 17 March 2013, an online article about the destruction being caused by galamseyers and illegal loggers engaged in chainsaw bushcut lumber production, written by me, was published by (Ghanaweb.com ). It was entitled: “Hon. Alhaji Inusah Fuseini: Stop Akyem Abuakwa Juaso’s Illegal Gold Miners”.
As we speak, that abomination is still ongoing. Trees earmarked for a mooted world’s longest forest canopy walkway have all been felled. Yet still, it remains one of the best off-the-beaten-track extreme hiking destinations on the planet, and a biodiversity-rich living laboratory for researchers and nature lovers who treasure great outdoors family adventure experiences that enable them to help protect the remainder of our nation’s remaining natural heritage.
Having observed the marvellous work you are doing in other parts of Ghana to encourage smallholder farmers to embrace organic farming using agroforestry and permaculture principles, the question from me is: Tropenbos, why don’t you extend your climate resilience levelling-up social impact empowerment initiatives in other parts of rural Ghana to fringe forest cocoa farming communities in Akyem Abuakwa too?
In our case, for example, speaking as a representative of Akyem Juaso’s largest private freehold landowners, all you need do to kick-start a quiet local transformative green economic revolution in Akyem Juaso would be to pay a scoping trip to our land and then request that the government of Ghana recruits and trains our overseers as River Guards – to protect what is a watershed with four streams – the Apotosu, Cheboah, Akusoo, and Bodwerseh streams – flowing in it.
That said, I’d also be happy to make part (5 square miles under the direct control of my dear sister and I!) of my extended family clan’s biodiversity-rich, 14-square-mile upland evergreen rainforest property, in the Akyem Juaso section of what is a designated Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), available to you to pilot as a living laboratory to teach trainers of smallholder farmers the principles of organic farming. Notably, a pillar with “GSBA” etched on its top marks the area’s significance.
This would help spread the word amongst our younger generations across the entirety of Akyem Abuakwa that there are viable alternatives to the nation-wrecking ecocidal crimes of galamsey, illegal sandwinning, and chainsaw bushcut lumber production! Furthermore, 99.6 acres of land lies in the Atewa Forest Reserve to which we have legal access but have reserved for a community carbon sequestration initiative, referred to as an “admitted farm” in Forestry Commission jargon. The rest of our family’s Akyem Juaso freehold land lies on the off-reserve slopes.
A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve was conducted in 2006 by Conservation International, sponsored by Alcoa Foundation, and the results are available online in RAP Bulletin No. 47.
Feasible? Yes? Thanks.
Kind regards,
Kofi.
WhatsApp number: +233 576 564 600.
Mobile phone numbers: 0277 453 109 & 055 885 2619.
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