Overview of Social and Environmental Issues
Ghana’s richness in natural resources plays a significant role in its strong economy, providing the country with over twice the per capita output than the poorer countries in West Africa. However, overexploitation and mismanagement of these resources and a general lack of environmental awareness threatens the country and its people.

The economy remains highly dependent on subsistence agriculture sector, accounting for 50% of the annual GDP and employs 85% of the county's workforce. However, in only the past 50 years, Ghana's primary rainforest has been reduced by 90%. Currently it loses about 2% of its forest cover annually. This is primarily due to factors such as deforestation for subsistence agriculture, fuelwood collection, uncontrolled bush fires, overgrazing, widespread logging and mining for gold. In the north of the country, the Sahelian desert is quickly encroaching on deforested lands and soil erosion is rampant. Crop yields are decreasing, and overall agriculture productivity is threatened. Despite Ghana's richness in natural resources, 79% of the population still lives on less than $2 a day and the country still remains highly dependent on international financial and technical assistance.

Our Response
In partnership with the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture (KITA), and their vast network of alumni, NGOs and rural groups, we have developed a program to reach rural communities throughout country. Led by program coordinator, Lovans Owusu-Tayki, farmers are learning how to develop sustainable land-use systems which will bring them economic benefits while improving their environment. A strong focus of the program is placed on the Northern region where the Sahelian desert is expanding. Certain species of trees, such as Leucaena leucocephala and Calliandra calothyrsus are being planted to provide sustainable sources of fuelwood, animal fodder, and to replenish degraded soils. Other species, such as Moringa oleifera, with its highly nutritious leaves, will help families deal with issues of malnutrition.

In addition, as part of the program we are developing an agroforestry curriculum based on our Agroforestry Training Manual (LINK?) at KITA to train future graduates as agroforestry extension agents. In the future, they will be the ones leading the efforts to bring productivity back to Ghana's degraded environment.

Program Update

November 2009
During the past trimester, Lovans has held 17 workshops for farmers, NGOs and other organizations to teach them about agroforestry and how to become partners with TREES. We assisted interested farmers to establish tree nurseries, and they are currently planting the seedlings which have been growing for the past 4 months. Our program is also working with a number of schools in the country.

Eighteen trainings took place in schools, where children learned about the importance of trees and about agroforestry. As part of the school program 180 trained students planted trees to begin establishing forest gardens at their schools. In the future, the goal is for the schools to become part of our Tree Pals program (www.treepals.org). We are also training graduate students at the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture (KITA) in agroforestry. Forty students are taking part in the program as part of their graduate studies. They are working with rural communities to train them in agroforestry, establish tree nurseries, and plant trees. Moreover, students at KITA are establishing model forest gardens to be used in the curriculum. Due to our multi-level approach, so far we have been able to reach over 200 communities throughout Ghana.