Burkina Faso's Environment Minister Wants Shea Trees Preserved

Mr Batio Sassiere, Burkina Faso's Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Green Economy, has called on stakeholders in the tropical zones to help preserve Shea trees and enhance their value.

He said this would help prevent loss of Shea agro-forest parklands and its degradation and improve on productivity in the Shea sectors of the society.

He made the call during a regional knowledge dissemination workshop in Nyankpala dubbed: "Shea Parkland Productivity Transforming Shea -Women's Gold into Cash, Jobs and Resilient Sustainable Development".

The two-day workshop, organized by the World Bank Group, sought to educate and disseminate the key finding on Shea parklands from a World Bank study.

The study was titled: "Leveraging Agricultural Value Chains to Enhance Tropical Tree Cover and Slow Deforestation (LEAVES)" to stakeholders in the northern region and other African countries.

"Shea is one of the valuable tropical resources and it is 'Gold' that should be preserved," Mr Sassiere said.

Mr Sassiere urged stakeholders to come out with meaningful policies that would enhance regional and sub-regional integration to promote knowledge sharing, inter-institutional support and technology.

Prof Gabriel Ayum Teye, the Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), proposed that citizens should make it a point to educate each other on the need to preserve the Shea trees to enhance resilience and food security in Africa.

He urged researchers to study more on how to improve on the growth of economic trees not just Shea alone so that they could be harvested within a shorter period between three to five years.

Ms Dora Nsuwa Cudjoe, a Senior Environmental Specialist at the World Bank Group, said the workshop was also aimed at improving productivity from a standpoint of providing sustainable jobs for women and the youth in the ecological landscape.

Ms Cudjoe, in a presentation on the LEAVE study, said Shea agro-forest parklands in Africa, traditionally managed by women and youth with over 16 million shea collectors in 21 countries, were under increasing threats in terms of climate change and poorly managed crop programmes.

She said if this is not enhanced and sustained, there could be significant displacement and forced migration of people from the parklands.

Ms Cudjoe said the LEAVES study highlights that agriculture could be a part of the solution to slowing the degradation and clearing of tropical forest and to enhance tree cover in agricultural and degraded landscapes.

"To achieve this, policies, initiatives and actions would be needed to transform value chain for commodities such as coffee, cocoa and share butter that comes from tree-based systems," she said.

Mr Almami Dampha, the Senior Policy Officer of Forest and Land Management of the African Union Commission, said the sustainable management of the tropical resources including shea butter and other forests products is critical to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve the livelihoods of Africans.

He called on all stakeholders to help build an Africa, which is peaceful and progressive in order to achieve the objectives of the Agenda 2063.

Mr Salifu Saeed, the Northern Regional Minister, said Government of Ghana sees sustainable and resilient landscapes as critical to minimize trade-offs between sectors, reduce migration and conflicts, enhance the resilience of livelihoods and implementation of the SDGs.

He said improving on the productivity of the Shea agro-forest parkland would boost jobs and economic opportunities for women and the youth as well as promote food security.

Mr Sagre Bambangi, the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, said limited attention is being given to Shea as compared to cocoa and this has made production quite a challenge.

He said there is the need for more advocacy to enhance the efforts of the sector.