Reforestation Project in Northeastern Ghana

As a new member of the Rotary Club of Mystic (CT), I had a long-established relationship with a community-based organization in Ghana – the Foadaan Foundation, located in the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo District of Northern Region, created to address forest depletion of the area – and wanted to help. Foadaan has developed a project to develop a Tree Nursery to raise stock to be replanted along the local Bimbagu River to provide protection of the river’s banks, that it is hoped can serve as a pilot project that can be replicated throughout the Northern Region of Ghana and perhaps elsewhere. Recently, the Rotary Club of Mystic has committed funds for this program to get it off the ground by providing funds necessary for Foadaan to purchase a 4-hectare plot of land in the Spring of 2021, with the active development of the tree nursery during the July 2021 – June 2022 fiscal cycle.

A second phase of the project, to create a pilot wood log farm for sustainable charcoal production, is proposed upon a positive conclusion of this project, as well as the possibility of other projects to generate and utilize biogas in cooking and solar energy for general use if the project and local partners prove to be successful.

It is the goal of the Rotary Club of Mystic and Foadaan to engage other parties to join this project to be able to provide additional resources beyond which these two organizations can muster on their own; therefore, we are requesting other Rotary Clubs in CT and Ghana, as well as established agencies such as USAID, EU Commissions, and/or UN-backed programs to partner with us to make this pilot project a success.

See more at Foadaan’s website.