Bolgatanga, Feb. 25, GNA – Mr Joseph Binlinla, the Regional Manager of Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, Upper East Region, says community involvement in natural resource conservation is critical to stemming the tide of increasing depletion of wildlife and forest degradation.
He said the Forestry Commission was working at involving local communities, traditional leaders and district assemblies through the Community Resources Management Area (CREMA) concept, in the governance of natural resources to strive to reduce environmental degradation.
The concept is a strategy to devolve management powers of natural resources to groups of communities.
Mr Binlinla noted that forests and wild animals were getting depleted every day due to increasing human land-use activities at the peril of communities’ livelihood needs.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga in response to the performance of the CREMA in sustainable management of natural resources, he said the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission was capitalising on the concept to raise awareness on the importance of natural resources to humanity.
It is also to complement the Forestry Commission’s role and protect wildlife backed by by-laws the community has instituted in tandem with the Wildlife Animals Preservation Act of 1961 Act 43.
Mr Binlinla said the communities had, since time immemorial, depended on the natural environment for various needs including medicines, building materials, meat, fresh water, wild fruits, and many non-timber forest products.
For the past seven years, some communities in the North East, Upper West and Upper East regions had made tremendous strides in the management of their natural resources through the establishment of six CREMAs under the sponsorship of the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank.
The six include the Sanyiga Kasena Gavara Kara located at Sissala East and Kassena Nankana West districts, and Moagduriru Wontanluri Kuwomsaasi located at the Mamprugu Moagduri District.
The others are Builsa Yenning in the Builsa South District, Bulkawe in the Builsa North, Sissala Kassena Fraah in the Sissala East and Chakali Sungmaalu located in Wa East in the Upper West Region.
The concept, however, “does not prevent people from farming in the area, they are allowed to cultivate farms, take products from the CREMA to generate some income, but the watch word is for communities to guard against excessive offtake of resources since that is not sustainable,” he said.
He said the communities were also supported with livelihood enterprises including beehives and shea-butter processing facilities to enhance their livelihoods.
