By Bisola Adeyemo
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project (GSLERP) for farmers in the five regions of the north, to mitigate the effects of climate change on the fragile ecosystem of the Northern Savannah Landscape, as well as improve the shea value chain, particularly for the many women engaged in the entire value chain.
At the launching ceremony, Vice President Bawumia said the Shea Landscape Project would be the second emission reductions programme to be implemented under the REDD+ process in Ghana, after the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+.
The project is focused on the northern landscapes, which are currently undergoing rapid deforestation and degradation including the loss of valuable shea trees.
The GSLERP will provide a unique opportunity to engage on a bigger scale, the Shea commodity and its by-products, which are income generating activities for over 600,000 women.
Ghana is currently the fourth largest producer of Shea in the world and the project is expected to be successful with the planting of over 1.7 million shea trees over a 7-year project period.
The government since 2017, supported scientific research on the shea plant with view to making it a reliable income generating product.
The work, undertaken by the COCOBOD, has led to important breakthrough, including reducing the gestation period of the shea plant from over 20 years to an average of 3 years, the Vice President disclosed.
Dr Bawumia said it was against that background that the government committed in the 2022 budget statement to embark on projects and programme that would promote the cultivation of shea in the north, just as cocoa in the south, to transform the local economies of the shea region.
The implementation of GSLERP is crucial, Vice President Bawumia stated, as the project would address about nine Sustainable Development Goals.
He also said the project would address the financial constraints of shea farmers, ensure gender equality in the shea-production systems, promote the business development of shea farming among natives, decreased deforestation and enhance fire management covering almost 500,000 hectares.
Vice President Bawumia noted that the project could be achieved when stakeholders fully commit to it through collective ownership.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor expressed the government’s gratitude to the chiefs for banning the harvesting of wood and the burning of same into charcoal, saying it would go a long in the fight climate change.