Community Advised to Protect the Weto Range

The Global Environmental Facility Small Grant Programme has released twenty two thousand dollars towards the protection of the Weto forest reserve in the Volta region.

The project is to help communities improve their adaptive capacity to climate change.

The Weto forest deforestation rate is 2.0% leading to an annual loss of about 135,000 hectares.

Emission data indicates that Ghana has become a net emitter due to high levels of carbon emissions in land use and forestry sector to which the degradation in the Weto Range is a contributing factor.

 It is for this reason that the Global Environmental Facility Small Grant Programme (GEFSGP) is engaging indigenes in the region in a community-Based Enhancement of Carbon Stock through Wildfire Management and Afforestation in the Weto Range

Other civil society organization including the Youth Employment Network is currently educating indigenes on managing the reserve.

Another major problem within the Range is incidence of wildfires/bushfires normally initiated by the farmers in the attempt of clearing lands for farming activities. Bush fires have been identified as a contributor to the depletion of the Weto forest reserve.

134 cases of bush fires were recorded in 2010, as against over 229 cases recorded in September 2011, and this is blamed on farmers practicing slash and burn system of farming.

The Chief Executive of Youth Employment Network Dinah Morris entreated farmers and all stakeholders in the various districts and municipalities to help protect the forest reserve.