The Climate Change Project

Rural women were educated on the Climate Change. They usually call it Change in WEATHER. As they have experienced too much rain and too much sun-shine which have affected thier production ( crop / fishing). They therefore decided to plant trees. 400 rural women planted diffrent varieties of trees to improve the climate on the 15th October being the World rural Women's Day in Ghana . As a follow -up more awerenes is being created to support the tree planting. By Lydis Sasu National Co-ordinator FONG / Women's Leader

Dear Daanoya, this story makes me think of what I also saw happening in Mali. Though been a semi-arid region with 9 months of dry season, the centre of the country (around Segou region) sometimes receives very heavy rain during the months of July and August, with flood in certain areas, very locally (a certain area in a village fro example). So, some farmers decided to plant trees in these specific areas, as they were anyway not exploitable as the rain would flood the area for more than a week and would kill the harvest. A lot of farmers were said to plant eucalyptus as this species absorb a lot of water. This was successfull in some areas, the plantation was growing well and already giving poles after 5-10 years. Other areas with eucalyptus trees were more or less successful and would even dry the ground and the nearest well... So I think we have to be careful in recommending specific species for specific areas (or specific varieties), and I think this can be applied to any area with changing environmental or weather conditions, considering the specific environemental conditions or even micro climate of the area so as to not worsen these already difficult conditions for farmers...

Thanks Daanoya [ or Lydis (?) ] and Nicole : ) I am sure planting trees will improve the climate and bring lots of other benefits too! Hijacking Nicole's points I would like to add and learn from your project: - Have the women been involved in choosing the trees to plant? - Are the trees providing food, medicine, shelter, fodder? And regarding the increased awareness about the importance of planting trees - what do you think is is the main message that people are receiving? In other words: Why is it important t plant trees? Back to all!