As Ghana strives to regenerate its degraded land, the efforts of local organizations like Eco-Care Ghana are paving the way for a greener future. Its work demonstrates the role of community collaboration in successful land restoration.
Agriculture is one of the vital sectors but also a major contributor to climate change and biodiversity loss in Ghana. High forests and savannah landscapes have suffered significant damage in recent years. This damage is mainly caused by agricultural expansion, charcoal production, wildfires and uncontrolled logging activities.
Eco-Care Ghana is a right-based campaign and advocacy organization founded in 2018. It aims to impact lives of the communities, protect natural resources and contribute to the country’s development.
One of Eco-Care Ghana’s core projects is a five-year community-led restoration project that provides essential biological services to help combat effects of climate change.
The organization received funding from TerraFund for AFR100, an initiative of World Resources Institute, One Tree Planted, and Realize Impact that finances Africa's top restoration enterprises and projects. Through this funding, Eco-Care Ghana is restoring approximately 1,000 hectares of farmlands that have been damaged or left unused across five villages.
Obed Owusu-Addai, the project manager at Eco-Care, highlights that the trees are grown on 800 hectares of donated land where food can’t be grown or where erosion is severe.
“In this project, we take steps to ensure that the seeds don't dry up while waiting for rain. We do this by implementing feasible solutions, such as sustainable irrigation systems, to support the growth of the trees. The uncertain rainy seasons in Ghana are the main reason for this. For instance, in 2022, it rained only from June to July,” says Obed
Since it was founded, Eco-Care Ghana has revived 1,000 hectares of land and planted around 800,000 trees, both across the road and in schools. This is just the beginning because the initiative aims to restore thousands of hectares and plant hundreds of thousands of trees in Ghana in the future.
Eco-Care Ghana is a great testament that landscape restoration is a journey that requires collective actions and community empowerment to be successful. The future looks greener for Ghana with such initiatives working together to regenerate the country’s degraded natural resources.
