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1. Improving Community livelihoods
Deepen
conservation and education activities that will address improvement in the
quality of rural peoples lives, notably, land, water management and related
natural resources. A pilot project proposal to address the pollution of the
Densu River and the Weija Lake and deforestation along the banks, involving 5
communities has been submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Science
2. ECOG’s Role in a National IEC Program on Water
Since
the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, there
has been a couple of initiatives by Government Agencies on the “water issue” in
which ECOG has participated. ECOG expects to strengthen its role, and in
collaboration with other NGO’s and Government agencies, initiate strategies for
an effective nationwide Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Program
on water for the various publics of Ghana.
3.
Development of Parks, Youth Tourism and Outdoor
Recreation
As the first indigenous Ghanaian NGO to target youth and
children for environmental activities, ECOG has had many occasion to engage
children in eco-tourism and acquired a bus for this purpose. An evaluation of
these tours and other activities with youth and children usually organized in
the two major children’s parks in Accra and Kumasi leaves no doubt on the value
and the need to develop this area further for the benefit of youth, children and
families in general. ECOG believes in the tremendous potential of the youth and
children, which needs to be appropriately harnessed to create a better
tomorrow.
4. Protection of NTFP’s:
ECOG has long been an
advocate of the protection of Non-timber forests products (NTFP’s) and had the
opportunity to organize a side-event on the issue at the World Forest Congress
2003, held in Quebec, Canada. ECOG will seek to work generally but with the
involvement of local communities on restoring and enhancing the value of these
products that are so vital to the existence of local communities.
5.
Advocacy on CBFM:
Since the WSSD, 2002, ECOG has been part
of the internet discussion on community-based forest management (CBFM) initiated
by the Global Caucus on CBFM and was nominated as the Focal Point with
responsibility to coordinate the activities of the West-African sub-grouping of
the Caucus.
ECOG will initiate strategies to strengthen advocacy of CBFM, now
gaining emphasis in Ghana and known variously as participatory forest management
or community forestry. ECOG will target African Youth in particular for
education and promotion of CBFM.
6.
Reforestation of Degraded Lands:
Working in collaboration
with the Forestry Services Division of the Forestry Commission, ECOG’s Regional
and District Coordinators have gained a lot of experience in this area. The
challenges are tremendous, especially dealing with deliberately set bush fires,
grazing animals and early removal of trees for firewood. Yet, ECOG sees this
issue as one deserving national priority attention and will collaborate with any
interested agency to expand its operations in this area.
7.
School Environment Beautification:
This is how ECOG was
started in 1987 and gained recognition to become an environmental NGO. Most
school compounds do not add any value to the lives of the school children and
many are indeed an eyesore. We intend to strengthen advocacy on the singular
need to enhance school environments as a form of value-added factor in the life
of a school child, and to work closely with school heads/teachers and school
children to improve their school environments with tree planting and other forms
of landscaping.
8.
The Management of Polythene Waste:
In 1998 ECOG declared war
on the “Menace of Polythene Bags”, in a pilot education program sponsored by the
Environmental Protection Agency. We engaged discussions with market women,
branches of the GPRTU, and reached out to the general public through the FM
stations, while school children were engaged in nationwide essay-writing to
address the problem. The program deserves continuity and expansion to tackle the
problem holistically, as the situation continues to worsen with all its
consequential negative impact on the communities.
9.
Creation of a National Environment Education Fund:
At its
inception as an NGO, ECOG identified environmental education as priority issue
and made it a major objective to target the youth and children for its programs
in this area. Unfortunately, in ECOG’s experience, this is an area where funding
support is very difficult to come by. Donors, local and foreign alike, want to
be able to point at physical things as a consequence of their funding or
donation. Yet, without the appropriate education, attitudes and habits will not
change and without change, there can be no development.
Therefore, ECOG
stubbornly, insists that this area should get the deserving attention and will
pursue this objective till it achieves success. A National Environment fund,
with a fixed contribution from the Government and voluntary contributions from
the Business/donor communities and individuals, appropriately supervised in its
utilization, should be able to address the root causes of many developmental
problems such, malnutrition, poor sanitation, deforestation from bush burning
and bad farming practices, water related diseases, etc.
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EVERGREEN CLUB OF
GHANA
