Reviving forests in northern Ghana with natural regeneration

DW (English)

In Ghana's Upper East Region, a women’s group is restoring degraded land naturally, repairing massive forest and vegetation loss by regular pruning of trees and shrubs.

Transcript

00:01Not all the tree stems you see are actually dead.

00:04Some start to grow again.

00:06With the right care, a new tree can sprout up.

00:09In just a few years, a wasteland can be reborn as a healthy woodland.

00:13How?

00:15These women in the community of Yamiriga in northern Ghana

00:18deliberately cut back smaller branches

00:21so that the strongest ones get more light, air and nutrients.

00:25The result? He studied trees where practically nothing used to grow.

00:34It was troubling.

00:36We wondered what crimes we committed to deserve that fate.

00:39We were farming big fields, but the harvest was always meagre.

00:43Many people migrated. Even I was thinking about it too.

00:49Deforestation is having an impact across Ghana

00:52and over a third of the country's land is at a threat of desertification

00:56as a result of climate change and other human-induced damage,

01:00such as uncontrolled logging for firewood and bushfires

01:04lit by hunters to flash out prey.

01:07With support from United Nations,

01:10Ghana aims to plant millions of trees by 2030

01:13to combat climate change and restore degraded landscapes.

01:17But some are skeptical about the initiative.

01:20You raise a seedling in a nursery condition

01:23and you bring it out and plant it out in the wild

01:26where it's harsh, temperatures are high, there's a drought,

01:30then to couple with that livestock is browsing them.

01:34It's like taking the baby and leaving the baby in the city centre

01:37and saying that you should live your life.

01:39I brought you to the world, have a go at it.

01:42It's not easy to survive these harsh conditions.

01:45In Yamiriga, they are taking a different approach.

01:48This is the land just a few years ago.

01:51Now a sign marks the progress on the reforestation front.

01:56Initially, the women pruned living tree stems.

02:00Now, they mostly prune young trees

02:02and have sprung up from the seeds dispersed by natural means,

02:06such as animal droppings.

02:08The idea is to ensure the trees grow and bear fruit faster.

02:12Restoring woodland areas also has a positive impact on the microclimate,

02:16helping to increase humidity, cool down the soil and make rainfall more regular.

02:22The approach is called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration or FMNR.

02:27This project was launched in 2010 by NGO World Vision Ghana.

02:34With the concept of the FMNR,

02:36the communities were able to generate this place, this field,

02:40to become a forest.

02:42What did they do?

02:44All they did was to mobilize themselves,

02:47come out and prune the straws here,

02:50and then protect them from bushfires.

02:52And within a few years, the place changed into a forest.

02:57So that is the FMNR concept.

03:00All what you are seeing here, no tree was planted.

03:03But the system has critics too.

03:06Among those opposing the expansion of FMNR

03:09is local maize farmer Moses Ayamga.

03:12He has a very different concept of farming.

03:19They are interfering with our work.

03:24They said we shouldn't cut down trees on our farms.

03:27How do you farm without chemicals,

03:30without clearing lands, without tractors?

03:33If you don't cut down the trees, how can you grow food?

03:37But for the women in Yamariga,

03:42the project is literally bearing fruits and nuts,

03:45enough for them to make a decent living.

03:48Before FMNR came to our community,

03:52the fruit I'm holding didn't exist here.

03:55There were no sheer nuts.

03:58There was suffering and hunger.

04:00Our lives were miserable.

04:02Our children faced a lot of challenges.

04:05Even getting firewood was a problem.

04:09But now everything has grown back

04:11and is making us happy.

04:16As well as enjoying the fruits of the women's labour,

04:19it's the men's job to protect the trees.

04:22Anyone caught harming them is made to pay a fine,

04:25sometimes in kind rather than cash.

04:31The women of Yamariga are an inspiring example.

04:34Women's collectives like theirs in 90 communities in northern Ghana

04:39have already revived over 45 square kilometers of degraded land,

04:43one cut at a time.

04:45Women's Holocaust

05:02Women's interpreter

05:05Tiere

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