TREE AID Ghana commissions Non-Timber Forest Products warehouses

Dasabligu (UE), April 1, GNA - Tree Aid Ghana has begun the building of non-timber forest products warehouses in some selected communities in the Upper East and Northern regions.

The beneficiary communities are Dasabligu in the Nabdam District and Pindaa in Kassena-Nankana of the Upper East Region, as well as Tuna in the Tuna-Saula Kalba District of the Northern Region.

The Project when completed would help address the challenges of the storage of non-timber forest products including sheanuts, baobab and dawadawa.

TREE AID Ghana is an international development organisation which focuses on unlocking the potential of trees to reduce poverty and protect the environment in Africa.   It is currently implementing programmes in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali and Niger.

TREE AID Ghana over the years, in partnership with its local partners, have formed and empowered over 340 Village Tree Enterprise groups in 18 Districts across the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, where it is operating.

The beneficiaries are mainly women's groups and are into sheanut picking, sheanut processing, baobab powder, honey and oil extraction, and Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA).

The Village Tree Enterprise projects work with local community groups to develop businesses from non-timber tree products such as seeds, nuts, fruits, leaves, flowers and fibres. The projects utilise indigenous trees which have been adapted to the arid climate of the region.

Speaking at separate functions, the Ghana Country Manager of TREE AID, Mr Andrew Y. Dokurugu indicated that one of the main visions of his outfit was to empower the vulnerable, with emphasis on women, and expressed happiness that through the various intervention a lot of women had been empowered.

He mentioned the improvement of food security in households, the ability of parents to pay for their children's school fees and National Health Insurance, the reduction of rural-urban migration and the efficient management of natural resources by the communities, as some of the impact the intervention of Tree Aid Ghana had made.

'Non-timber forest products have the potentials of poverty reduction and wealth creation and when given the needed attention can help accelerate rural development', he stated.

Mr Dokurugu said with the completion of the Warehouse which was being sponsored by Comic Relief, a Charitable Organization in United Kingdom and his outfit, the problem of storage and marketing would be a thing of the past.

He impressed upon the beneficiary communities to put up a strong and comprehensive management system in place to manage the facilities, and said plans were far advanced to provide them with crashing machines to aid them in the processing of the raw materials.

Mr Akparibo Mark Kebo, the Programme Coordinator of Community Self Reliance Centre, said through the partnership with TREE AID Ghana, the Village Tree Enterprises was linked to market access with companies such as the Savannah Fruits Company and Moringa Connect to purchase their products.

The Political heads of the beneficiary Districts, as well as the Chiefs and people lauded the efforts of TREE AID Ghana in complimenting government's efforts to help alleviate poverty in their communities and pledged their support for the project.

GNA