Rainforest Alliance has trained some selected farmers on alternative livelihoods like pig farming, bee keeping, cabbage farming, snail farming and others as part of its activities on the EU LEAN project in the high forest ecological zone of Ghana.

Dorcas Amoah, a farmer and a beneficiary who is also the  Vice Chairman of LMB in Sefwi Wiawso, and Bopa Community where Rainforest Alliance is implementing the project titled ‘The Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation’ (LEAN) lauded the efforts made to improve the livelihoods of people in the Western North region.

The LEAN project is a four year project funded by the European Union and aims to conserve biodiversity, increase climate resilience and reduce emissions from land use changes in the savannah, high forest and transitions zones of Ghana while helping local farmers improve their livelihood.

This action is to help improve on the livelihood of the farmers so as to generate income when the farms are no longer in peak seasons. It is also to desensitize the farmers to desist from causing forest infractions that is activities which will contribute to deforestation and land degradation and serve as a sustainability tool for the landscape management board.

According to Dorcas Amoah who chose pig farming, "The activity is very easy. It is very lucrative. I can sell one for as much as 2500GHC and since they breed faster, you’re able to get more pigs in a short amount of time. Besides a lot of people enjoy pork."

 She however commented on some of the challenges that she was facing as a pig farmer.

"Feeding is a challenge, pigs love to eat and their feed is expensive. It is why they are expensive even in this part of town".

The LEAN project which was launched on May 11, 2021, at the national level and subsequently launched at the three targeted landscapes is implemented on the ground by a consortium of four local and international NGOs with expertise in these challenging fields: They are Rainforest Alliance, World Vision Ghana, Tropenbos Ghana, and EcoCare Ghana.