Integrated Final Report of Plec Work in Ghana

INTEGRATED FINAL REPORT OF PLEC WORK IN GHANA

AUGUST 1992 - FEBRUARY 2002

Reported by

Edwin A. Gyasi

(Leader, southern Ghana PLEC group and Co-ordinating Leader, WAPLEC)

With assistance of

Felix Asante

(WAPLEC Administrative and Research Officer)

and

Yaa Asiedua Gyasi

(Ag. WAPLEC Secretary and Temporary Research Assistant)

University of Ghana, Legon

March 2002

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In Ghana PLEC work started in 1993 with a pilot study of environmental changes and farmers reactions to them with reference to sites within the southern sector of the semi-humid forest-savanna transition zone. The study resulted in:

·  a technical report;

·  a workshop;

·  a published scientific paper;

·  a book; and,

·  creation of contacts with farmers and others for further work.

Subsequently, but most especially from 1997, work became more applied with a focus on agrodiversity conservation through a participatory approach led by farmers with support of scientists. A major output is establishment of five principal agrodiversity demonstration sites and two subsidiary ones. They are located in the three main agroecological zones (humid forest, dry savanna and semi-humid forest-savanna mosaic), and managed by over 1300 farmers who include experts in biodiversity conservation. PLEC has organized the farmers into associations that serve as a medium for:

·  farmer - scientist interactions and collaborative work;

·  farmer - to - farmer interactions including exchange of knowledge and germ-plasm;

·  reaching out to farmers and sensitizing them to issues of conservation and development;

·  mobilizing the latent knowledge, energy and other resources of farmers for the purpose of conservation and development;

·  tapping or accessing external support for farmers;

·  carrying out demonstrations; and,

·  in general, empowering farmers politically, socially and economically.

Through the farmer associations PLEC interventions have achieved the following:

·  by systematic assessment involving scientists and over 50 farmer expert ethno-botanists, scientific insights into plant-biodiversity;

·  identification of over 12 traditional farm management practices that favour biodiversity;

·  promotion of use of the practices identified as favouring biodiversity, and of other modes of conservation.

As a result of the conservation promotion drive, mulching with chopped vegetation in a practice called oprowka (or proka), which avoids ecologically destructive burning, is on the increase, as are the following practices:

·  management of assorted yams within agroforestry systems;

·  usage of forests conserved nearby for beekeeping, honey and wax, which has grown to involves over 70 households with great prospects for further expansion;

·  establishment of woodlots and plant nurseries which yield poles, firewood and seedlings in commercial quantities;

·  conservation and production of local varieties of rare domestic fowls and rice, Oryza glaberrima, on a commercial scale;

·  management of medicinal plants within conserved forest or arboretum;

·  growing of foodcrops among trees conserved in situ in farms;

·  propagation of plantain and certain other crops through the split-corm technique; and,

·  grafting and budding of plants.

Because of the commercial orientation of these and other conservation practices encouraged by PLEC, rural livelihoods and incomes are being improved. The process is encouraged by enthusiastic response of farmers to other value addition or income generating activities, notably the following, which are promoted by PLEC to motivate farmers to conserve:

·  processing of cassava, a primary cash crop, into flour for bread and pastry, which involves a sizeable number of females;

·  spinning and weaving of cotton, another important cash crop, into cloth by youthful women, which is helping to curb rural out-migration;

·  raising of snails, a delicacy in some of the demonstration sites; and,

·  piggery, introduced as the nucleus of a swine dispersal project.

Enrichment of biodiversity through PLEC interventions, above all those focused on promotion of agrodiversity and related activities, is manifested, among other things, by:

·  an apparent increased plant pollination and utilization of nectar by bees kept in home gardens and forests conserved nearby;

·  conservation and development of arboreta harboring various species of medicinal plants;

·  production of rare types of yam, Dioscorea, within agroforestry systems;

·  integration of citrus and oil palms into traditional systems of food cropping;

·  development, by a local farmer, of an unique system of crop management based on a combination of traditional and modern practices that has become a model because of its biodiverse character and high productivity;

·  regeneration of deforested areas;

·  a revival of the traditional agroforestry practice of growing crops alongside trees conserved in situ within farms; and,

·  increased number of biodiverse school gardens.

Against this background and recalling the enthusiasm of farmers and their children for PLEC work, the demonstrated commitment of scientists to the PLEC cause, the co-operation and support of government, and the capacity developed by PLEC for improvement of rural livelihoods through agrodiversity, we can confidently expect the PLEC initiative to be sustained.

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INTEGRATED FINAL REPORT OF PLEC WORK IN GHANA

AUGUST 1992 -FEBRUARY 2002 [(]

Reported by Edwin A. Gyasi (Co-ordinating Leader, WAPLEC) with assistance of Felix Asante (WAPLEC Administrative and Research Officer) and Yaa Asiedua Gyasi (Ag. WAPLEC Secretary and Temporary Research Assistant)

1.  HISTORICAL CONTEXT

1.1  Background

Many events occur by chance rather than by design. So it was with the start of PLEC work in Ghana and elsewhere in West Africa. It all is rooted in a chance encounter between Professor Edwin Gyasi and Emeritus Professor Harold Brookfield, which culminated in the participation of Gyasi in the maiden meeting of PLEC during the 27th International Geographical Congress (IGC) of the International Geographical Union (IGU) in August 1992 in Washington, D.C.

Following a request by Brookfield in subsequent correspondence, Gyasi assembled about 12 Ghanaian scientists for a meeting with Brookfield and Dr. Juha Uitto of the UNU (United Nations University) on the prospective research project, ‘Population, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC)’, during a UNU conference on the Sub-Sahara African environment in Accra, Ghana, in March 1993.

A major outcome was the commissioning of Edwin Gyasi by the UNU in the later part of 1993, to lead a team of scientists to carry out a pilot PLEC study on production pressures and environmental changes with special reference to the southern sector of Ghana’s forest-savanna transition zone. The study focused on three sites, Yensiso, Sekesua and Amanase, which are described in subsequent sections. It was carried out between August 1993 and January 1994 with a $5,000 UNU seed money. The under listed scientists from the University of Ghana were the principal researchers:

·  Edwin A. Gyasi (Leader/Co-ordinator);

·  Gotfried T. Agyepong;

·  Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf;

·  Lewis Enu-Kwesi;

·  John S. Nabila; and,

·  Emmanuel Owusu-Bennoah.

1.2.  Progression of PLEC work in pre-GEF phase

Main outputs of the pilot study were:

a)  the research study report, ‘Environmental Endangerment in the Forest-Savanna zone of Southern Ghana’ (Prepared for the UNU in January 1994 by E. A. Gyasi, G. T. Agyepong, E. Ardayfio-Schandorf, L. Enu-Kwesi, J. S. Nabila and E. Owusu-Bennoah with assistance of S. K. Kufogbe and technical advice by G. Benneh);

b)  the workshop, ‘Environment, Biodiversity and Agricultural Change in West Africa’, which was hosted in October 1994 at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, by the embryonic PLEC-Ghana with collaboration of UNU/INRA (United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa) and funding by the UNU and TWA (Third World Academy of Sciences);

c)  the scientific paper, ‘Production pressure and environmental change in the forest -savanna zone of Southern Ghana’, (Authored by Edwin A. Gyasi, G. T. Agyepong, E. Ardayfio-Schandorf, L. Enu-Kwesi, J. S. Nabila, and E. Owusu-Bennoah for publication in 1995 in Global Environmental Change 5 (4), 355 - 366);

d)  the book, ‘Environment, Biodiversity and Agricultural Change in West Africa: Perspectives from Ghana’, (Edited by Edwin A. Gyasi and Juha I. Uitto, and published by the United Nations University Press, Tokyo); and,

e)  creation of contacts with farmers and other people at the grassroots for further PLEC work.

The following developments followed the initial pilot study phase:

·  an extension of work from the sites in the semi humid forest-savanna zone of southern Ghana to include sites in the interior humid forest and semi-arid savanna zones located respectively in the central and northern sectors of the country (Fig. 1), and to other sites in the Republic of Guinea;

·  systematic mapping of sites and their settlements;

·  integration of more scientists from the University of Ghana, and of additional ones from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and University for Development Studies, both in Ghana, and the Université de Conakry in the Republic of Guinea; and,

·  increased institutional collaboration, especially with:

-  UNU/INRA, whose Director was appointed a PLEC-Ghana Technical Advisor;

-  Ghana’s Ministries of Environment, Science and Technology, Food and Agriculture and Lands and Forestry, each of which came to be formally represented on PLEC-Ghana by an official nominated by the Ministry;

-  Regional and District administrative authorities of the PLEC operational areas;

-  Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; and,

-  various NGOs, notably Ghana Rural Reconstruction Movement (Gh.R.R.M), and Ghana Association for the Conservation of Nature (GACON).

By the end of 1997, the following additional developments had occurred:

·  an increase in the number of scientists involved in the basically investigative and information generating PLEC work, from the initial core of six concentrated in southern Ghana, to nearly 30 (including associates), with representation in all three sectors of the country namely, southern, central and northern (Table 1; also Tables 2 - 4);

·  a growth in the number of farmers in all the three sectors (Table 1; also Tables 2 - 4); and,

·  increase in financial support from the initial $5,000 to an average of $22,158 per annum, with the UNU as the principal source (Table 5).

From about 1997, work emphasis shifted on to:

·  identification of those aspects of farmer land usage that appear to be particularly effective for conservation of agrodiversity (i.e. of biodiversity within agriculture); and,

·  applied work that involves demonstration of sustainable management of agrodiversity at the study sites, in a process of their development into ‘demonstration sites’ to foster agrodiversity conservation, and analysis and dissemination.

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Table 1: Time series representation of involvement of various categories of people in PLEC work in Ghana (1993 - 2001/2002)

Category of personnel / 1993 / 1994 / 1995 / 1996 / 1997 / 1998/99 / 1999/2000 / 2000/2001 / 2001/2002
SCIENTISTS / Core / 6 / 10 / 12
(10M: 2F) / 16
(14M: 2F) / 17
(15M: 2F) / 15
(13M: 2F) / 27 / 23
(17M: 6F) / 19
(14M: 5F)
Associates/collaborating / 0 / 3 / 10
(9M: 1F) / 14 / 13 / 14
(12M: 2F) / 18 / 16
(15M: 1F) / 25
(24M: 1F)
FARMERS / PLEC members / 0 / 0 / 20
(18M: 2F) / 203 / 390 / 770 / 897 / 952 / >1,319
Associates/collaborating / 10 / 15 / 3
(3M: 0F) / 3 / 3 / 8
(6M: 2F) / >23 / 52
(35M: 17F) / 62
(39M: 3F)

STUDENTS

/ Assistants / 4 / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 22 / 41 / 22
(19M: 3F) / 48
(42M: 6F)
PLEC-supported/sponsored / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 3
(2M: 1F) / 6
(5M: 1F) / 2
(2M: 0F) / 2
(2M: 0F)
OTHER SUPPORTING STAFF / Administrative / 0 / 0 / 3
(3M: 0F) / 2
(2M:0F) / 2
(2M: 0F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F)
Technical & others / 3 / 3 / N/A / N/A / N/A / 12
(12M: 0F) / 13
(13M: 0F) / 16
(15M: 1F) / 16
(15M: 1F)
TOTAL / 23 / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 847 / >1,028 / 1,086 / >1,494

N/A: Not available M : Male

Source: PLEC-Ghana records, University of Ghana, Legon F: Female

Table 2: Time series representation of involvement of various categories of people in PLEC work in southern Ghana (1993 - 2001/2002)

Category of personnel / 1993 / 1994 / 1995 / 1996 / 1997 / 1998/99 / 1999/2000 / 2000/2001 / 2001/2002
SCIENTISTS / Core / 6 / 10 / 8
(6M: 2F) / 8
(6M: 2F) / 7
(5M: 2F) / 6
(4M: 2F) / 7
(4M: 3F) / 7
(4M: 3F) / 7
(4M: 3F)
Associates/
collaborating / 0 / 3 / 8
(7M: 1F) / 8
(7M: 1F) / 8
(7M: 1F) / 8
(7M: 1F) / 6
(6M: 0F) / 6
(6M: 0F) / 9
(9M: 0F)
FARMERS / PLEC members / 0 / 0 / 20
(18M: 2F) / 107
(75M: 2F) / 247
(145M: 102F) / 338
(185M: 153F) / 355
(190M: 165F) / 361
(180M: 181F) / >361
Associates/
collaborating / 10 / 15 / N/A / N/A / N/A / 1
(1M: 0F) / 7
(5M: 2F) / 30
(25M: 5F) / 30
(25M: 5F)
STUDENTS / Assistants / N/A / 4
(3M: 1F) / 4
(3M: 1F) / 4
(3M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 6
(5M: 1F) / 6
(6M: 0F) / 6
(6M: 0F)
PLEC-supported/
sponsored / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 3
(3M: 0F) / 2
(2M: 0F) / 2
(2M: 0F)
OTHER SUPPORTING STAFF / Administrative / 0 / 0 / 3
(3M: 0F) / 2
(2M: 0F) / 2
(2M: 0F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F)
Technical &
others / 3 / 3 / 4
(4M: 0F) / 4
(4M: 0F) / 4
(4M: 0F) / 4
(4M: 0F) / 5
(5M: 0F) / 7
(6M: 1F) / 8
(7M: 1F)

TOTAL

/ 23 / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 363
(205M: 158F) / 392
(220M: 172F) / 422
(231M: 191F) / >427

N/A: Not available

Source: PLEC-Ghana records, University of Ghana, Legon

Table 3: Time series representation of involvement of various categories of people in PLEC work in central Ghana (1993 - 2001/2002)

Category of personnel / 1993 / 1994 / 1995 / 1996 / 1997 / 1998/99 / 1999/2000 / 2000/2001 / 2001/2002
SCIENTISTS / Core / N/A / 2
(2M: 0F) / 2
(2M: 0F) / 5
(5M: 0F) / 5
(5M: 0F) / 5
(5M: 0F) / 15 / 12
(10M: 2F) / 8
(7M: 1F)
Associates/
collaborating / N/A / N/A / 1
(1M: 0F) / 5
(5M: 0F) / 3
(3M: 0F) / 4 / 10 / 9
(7M: 2) / 15
(14M: 1F)
FARMERS / PLEC members / N/A / N/A / N/A / 95
(33M: 62F) / 128
(43M: 85F) / 182
(46M: 135F) / 252
(54M: 198F) / 400
(58M: 342F) / 767
(79M: 688F)
Associates/
collaborating / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 4
(2M: 2F) / >6 / 4
(2M: 2F) / 14
(6M: 8F)
STUDENTS / Assistants / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 16 / 33 / 11
(8M: 3F) / 38
(32M: 6F)
PLEC-supported/
sponsored / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 3
(2M: 1F) / 3
(2M: 1F) / 0 / 0
OTHER SUPPORTING STAFF / Administrative / N/A / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Technical & others / N/A / 0 / 0 / N/A / N/A / 3
(3M: 0F) / 5
(5M: 0F) / 7
(7M: 0F) / 6
(6M: 0F)
TOTAL / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / 217 / >324 / 443 / 848
(144M: 704F)

N/A: Not available