The Avatime Traditional Area is located along the western end of the WETO RANGE. While some of the villages are on top of the Mountains, others can be found in the valleys with some of them along the slopes. It is situated in the Mountain Forest zone.
There are seven communities in the area to be covered by the project. The inhabitants of these communities are basically subsistence farmers and petty traders with few of them being hunters. Most production is for home consumption while the little surplus is sold in the local or Logba markets. There were few cocoa farms also but most of it have been destroyed by bushfires and could not be rehabilitated. The once luxuriant Mountain forests are rapidly giving way to the strange Chromboleana odorata (Acheampog weeds). The area is also traversed by numerous streams, some of which are Kulugu, Odorome, and Kedita etc.
The area is home to small antelopes like the Maxwell?s Duiker, Bay Duiker, Bush bucks, Mona monkeys, Pangolins, Brush tailed Porcupines, Bull frogs and a few rare frog species, about 230 different species of birds, tortoises and terrapins, mongooses and a host of other fauna.
There are two types of vegetation in the area: the Mountain forest vegetation below and savannah grassland around the foot of the Gemi Mountain and other isolated spots. The area boasts of the highest point of human settlement in West Africa and a unique climate which attracts many tourists. At Amedzofe one can see far into Togo and many parts of the Volta Region.
2.2 PROBLEM DEFINITION

Over the years the Avatime Traditional Area has been experiencing land degradation. The scramble for land for farming, the need for fuel wood for domestic energy, and the need for lumber for construction of houses have led to the few remnants of Mountain Forests being eroded. The farm rotation- slash and burn method of land preparation, intentional setting of fire for hunting purposes, activities of palm wine tappers have all contributed in one way or the other to this state of affairs. Forests along streams have been destroyed in search of more fertile land for farming. The result is that the forest cover has been degraded, leaving streams exposed to direct rays of the sun. This has led to some of the streams drying up entirely, leaving the few ones left with very small volume of water which cease to flow during the dry seasons. These streams serve as sources of drinking water to a lot of the inhabitants of the area. Stories are even told of how these streams used to produce music when they flow over the numerous boulders that lay in their paths in the past.

Furthermore, the habitats of most of the animals are under a very serious threat. An example is a troop of Mona Monkeys being forced to migrate deep into an inaccessible patch of a small forest. Our intervention will surely create an uninterrupted corridor for these monkeys to move freely.
Rainfall has become erratic in the area. For all this the economic viability of the area is in danger and if no action is taken, posterity will not forgive those living today since those who will be living tomorrow may curse even the bones of their predecessors in their graves

2.3 PROJECT GOAL

The Goal of the project is to develop community-based Eco-Tourism potentials of the Avatime Traditional Area for environmental sustainability and poverty reduction.

2.3.1 Objectives:

The Objectives of the project is to

- Establish Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) for the rehabilitation of the degraded mountain cover and minimization of environmental degradation of the Avatime traditional area
- Introduce ecologically sustainable livelihood activities
- Promote Eco-tourism