USAID/RESTORE Project to plant 40,000 trees in five communities in Western North

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Resilient Ecosystem and Sustainable Transformation of Rural Economies (RESTORE) project has started planting about 40,000 trees in five communities within the Bibiani Anwhiaso Bekwai Municipality of the Western North Region.The beneficiary communities are Pataboso, Debiso, Bremang, Ankra-Muano and Kumkumso.The USAID funded RESTORE programme, being implemented by the Rainforest Alliance and Olam Food Ingredient (OFI), in partnership with multinational chocolate companies, farmer cooperatives and local partners, is aimed at Increasing tree cover and contribute to national and corporate emission reduction targets.Mr Kelvin Nartey, Senior Associate at Rainforest Alliance, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to kick start the tree planting exercise, said the project was timely since it would address some of the barriers hindering sustainable cocoa production, deforestation and low income among cocoa farmers within the coc oa supply chain.He stated that the strategic intervention also sought to address the primary threats of illegal and unsustainable cocoa farming, illegal mining and logging activities leading to a destruction of forest reserves.'The project seeks to address the limited livelihood opportunities and under representation of women and youth in West Africa's cocoa economy,' Mr Nartey added.Mr Emmanuel Braima, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at the Rainforest Alliance, asked Ghanaians to protect and preserve the country's forest reserves and that Rainforest Alliance was committed and ready to support farmers willing to plant trees on their farms.Mr Justice Koduah, Branch Coordinator, OFI, advised cocoa farmers to take farming as their businesses and always protect the environment to improve yield.He asked farmers and opinion leaders in the beneficiary communities to actively accept the RESTORE project and the Green Ghana initiative by nurturing the trees planted, saying 'Protecting forest reserves and environment should be a shared responsibility.'Source: Ghana News Agency