The Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) concept, spearheaded by World Vision Ghana, a Child Rights Organisation is gradually restoring degraded landscapes, fighting climate change, and empowering communities in the Savannah Ecological Zone.

Currently, under the Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) project, funded by the European Union, a total of 421 hectares of degraded lands and forest reserves across 50 communities in the Savannah Ecological Zone are gradually being restored.

The restored lands are spread across 25 communities each of the Kassena-Nankana West District in the Upper East Region and West Gonja District in the Savannah Region.

This came to light when the beneficiary communities, organised by World Vision Ghana, visited some of the project sites where shrubs, trees and vegetative cover had regenerated naturally and re-greened the environment.

The communities also visited the Yameriga community, where World Vision Ghana began the FMNR approach in 2009 and had restored several hectares of land and is considered a learning centre for other communities who want to venture into land restoration through natural regeneration.

The visit was to afford the beneficiary communities comprising lead farmers and fire volunteers to learn from each other as well as the Yameriga community and work to improve their operations to restore degraded lands to fight climate change and improve the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the visit, Mr Joseph Talata Abugri, the EU LEAN Project Officer in charge of Kassena-Nankana West District, World Vision Ghana, noted that the project was a four-year initiative started in 2021 and was at the end of its life span.

The project aimed to support national and local efforts to conserve biodiversity, improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, build resilience against climate change, and reduce emissions from land-use changes across Ghana’s high forest reserves, Savannah, and transition zones.

The Project Officer explained that threats of climate change were real and as such through the project, the communities had been empowered to desist from activities such as bush burning, and deforestation among others that deepened the phenomenon and embraced land and natural resources protection.

“We have also introduced alternative livelihood interventions such as beekeeping, small ruminants rearing, training of women on savings for transformation, soap making and among others to provide economic independence for the women to be able to cater for their children and families,” he said.

He urged the communities to work with the various relevant institutions such as the Forestry Commission, Ghana National Fire Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the District Assemblies to sustain the project to ensure maximum benefits.

Ms Fatima Boamani, a lead farmer under the EU LEAN project in the Achumbunyo community in the West Gonja District, noted that apart from the project helping to restore the degraded lands and improve agriculture productivity, economic trees such as shea and dawadawa among others had been protected and was providing economic opportunities for the women.

Ms Faustina Banakwoyem, from the Batiu community in Kassena-Nankana West District, lauded World Vision Ghana and its partners for the initiative and noted that unlike before when residents used to cut down trees and burn vegetative covers to engage in agriculture activities, the project had empowered communities to desist from environmental degradation.