NRP could be secured through CREMA implementation – Study

By Anthony Apubeo, GNA

Fumbisi (U/E), March 9, GNA – The Natural Resource Products (NRP) in communities in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions can be protected from destruction if the Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) are effectively managed, Mr Vincent Subbey, an Independent Consultant, has said.

Mr Subbey, who conducted a study on the current state of the CREMA concept in the Mamprugu-Moagduri District in the Northern Region and Bulisa South District in the Upper East Region, said people interviewed expressed optimism that NRPs such as Shea trees, Dawadawa, baobab, tamarine, moringa, black berry tree, Ebony tree and other fruit trees that grow in the wild could be well protected through CREMAs.

The findings of the study was shared to stakeholders at separate fora organized at Yagaba in the Northern Region and Fumbisi in the Upper East Region, it was sponsored by the USAID ADVANCE.

CREMA is an innovative programme which empowers communities to manage, protect and preserve the natural resources in those communities and ensure their effective utilization.

The project also offers a platform for the local government authority and the communities to interact and develop strategies to be deployed to achieve maximum benefits from the natural resources and enhance community development.

The research was aimed at equipping beneficiaries of CREMA with evidence-based information and mobilizing support from the stakeholders such the chiefs, Tindanas, opinion leaders, women groups and youth.

It also aims at preventing practices such as bushfires and deforestation amongst others and educates the public to abide by the by-laws of nature preservation.

The two month study, which was done in September and October last year had farmer groups, CREMA society, personnel of the Department of Agriculture, District Assemblies, the Police Commander, Forest Service Division and Wild Life Division of the Forestry Commission, members of the CREMA executive committee (CEC), and Community Resource Management Committee (CRMC), women and youth groups among others as its respondents in the data collection.

The study showed that about 94 per cent of the respondents in the two Districts depended on NRPs for livelihood.

“This underscores the significance of NRPs in local livelihoods. Thus being third highest source of income to the community members. NRPs play an important role in local livelihoods as sources of income, food and medicine. Thus, it is certain that for a long time to come the local economy will be natural resource based”, the research noted.

The research explained that the natural resources base and forests as well as farmlands were being destroyed, adding “bushfires, climate change, land degradation, population change and destruction of trees by Fulani herds are major causes.”

GNA

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