Planned Activities Implemented
i. Formed and Trained Project Implementation Committees
SODIA formed two levels of Project Implementation Committees. A Five Member Committee was set up at the organizational (SODIA) level. A Seven (7) Member Project Implementation Committee was formed at the Community level. The two Committees making Twelve (12) members were trained on issues around group dynamics, leadership, project management cycle, the specific project objectives, their roles and responsibilities, and strategies of inclusion in the project implementation. The members are representing Chiefs and opinion leaders, Youth, Women Groups, VSLA Groups, Farmers, and Assembly Members.

b. Community Entry and Sensitization
SODIA and the Project Implementation Committee Members organized community entry and sensitization sessions within the Hiamankyene and Wiasekrom communities. The activities introduced the project to the community members and beneficiaries in general and indulged their immediate support and participation to help facilitate the communities? acceptance of the intervention. The activity took place in Wiasekrom and Hiamankyene in the Tain district in the Bono Region.

c. Support 30 women per group in both Wiasekrom and Hiamankyene with a total membership of 64 members (rural women, farmers, and processors) to meet at least once a month.
The sustainability of our actions is key, especially the integration of vulnerable groups. We formed 32 32-member women?s group for them to meet the objective of this intervention is to create a unified front to champion and advocate for issues affecting women, climate change, and economic livelihood.
The initial meetings of the groups within the period afforded them the opportunity to develop a comprehensive schedule for their meetings and elect group executives.
Subsequent meetings were used to identify and discuss issues affecting women in their communities with the use of Reflection Action Tools.

d. Select and train 30 community facilitators, management committee members, community mobilizers especially women on Conservation agriculture and agroecology
As part of the community sensitization and group formation processes, each group identified a facilitator to lead in the activities at the group level. This was done with community leaders to ensure accountability and sustainability at both the group and community levels.
To equip the facilitators with the necessary skills to lead the groups, they were trained on the following using reflection action tools;
Transect walk, Community mapping, Daily Activity Calendar, Income and Expenditure Tree/Matrix, Problem Tree Analysis, Force Field Analysis, Access to and Control over Resources Matrix, Time Diary, Cobweb for Rights Analysis.

e. Project staff supported 60 women's groups to engage with 418 community members to discuss and sensitize women's participation and their roles in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.
As part of the intervention to improve women?s participation at the community level, women?s groups in various communities were supported to engage their community?s leaders on the need to recognize the participation of women in the decision-making of the community affecting biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.

f. Held 8 panel radio programme to discuss institutionalize biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation
Some of the topics discussed were;
? How to mitigate the impact of social norms that breeds inequality biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation
? The community?s role in creating safe access and involvement in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and good quality employment for women.
With the havoc COVID-19 is causing, the panelist took time to educate listeners on the disease and how they are to help halt the spread by observing the five protocols
g. Organize 5 trainings (516 beneficiaries) on biodiversity conservation, soil fertility improvement, Techniques, and wildfire management for farmers in Wiasekrom with support from EPA, Forestry, and District Assembly
The facilitators adopted a peer-to-peer approach which harnessed the potential and creativity of participants in learning with reference to the local resources around them. This deepened the understanding of participants compared to the lecture approach.

h. Training of 318 selected farmers in compost preparation and application for agro-forestry
Farmers in the Hiamankyene and Wiasekrom communities appreciate the essence or important reasons to ensure the reduction of greenhouse emissions, alternatives to the recent use of chemical fertilizers, and protection of the environment through the suppression of plant diseases, etc. The team recognized the need for the beneficiary groups to appreciate how the composting can be done by individual and group farmers. This will help improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant and food waste, and recycling organic materials, and manure. The project therefore trained Three Hundred and Eighteen farmers in composting and how to apply it in their agro-forestry farming processes. We trained them in how to return organic matter and nutrients to the soil in a form readily useable to plants. These organic matters will in turn improve plant growth by helping to break heavy clay soils into a better texture, by adding water and nutrient-holding capacity to sandy soils, and by adding essential nutrients to any soil. The training was facilitated by the Ministry of Agriculture and officers from SODIA who have in-depth knowledge of how it is done. Farmers have started applying the technology in their farms to help reduce the use of organic fertilizer within the communities.
ii. Setting Up 71 Individual and 2 Group Demonstration Farms
SODIA and the project management committee members have facilitated the setting up of two (2) group demonstration farms and Seventy-One Individual demonstration farms for farmers and the purpose was to illustrate the effects of using different seed varieties, fertilizers, methods of planting, and cultivation in resolving the environmental challenges to respond to climate change which was supported by agricultural extension agents at the community levels. Before the actual setting up of the demonstration farms, we set up a monitoring committee that comprises the following Extension staff, agents, specialists, concerned farmers, local dealers, and other cooperating individuals who will help do the work. In all, we have been able to plant up to a little over 10 hectares of land in all the two communities. These demonstration plots serve as areas for in-field information sharing for farmers and collecting data on how we can share with the wider populace.

j. Training of 122 Farmers in Organic Weedicides Application
Organic weedicides are those weedicides, which are made naturally and without the use of any chemicals. These variants of weedicides are eco-friendly and don't pose any harm to the environment. Despite the significant role the project had on the beneficiaries there was still the need to train the farmers in Hiamankyene and Wiasekrom on the proper methods of organic weedicide application. In this sense, the project trained One Hundred and Twenty-Two (122) farmers in the proper way of organic weedicide application on their crops and farms in general.

k. Support and Development of 60 Farmers in Alternative Livelihoods through VSLA Schemes
Almost all the community members of Hiamankyene depend directly or indirectly on the natural environmental resources of the community to meet their livelihoods. Climate change is altering many of the mutual relationships between the communities and natural environmental resources by posing a variety of new challenges to these resources, agriculture, biodiversity, community livelihoods, and food security. It is in this sense that SODIA and the community project community members have established Eighty-Member farmers at the initial stages of the project to receive revolving funds to benefit all the community farmers using the Village Savings and Loans Association model. These funds will be disbursed in our next disbursement period and will ensure that the farmers will invest those resources in alternatives to the livelihoods they have identified.