The Sakpa and Bekweikura communities in the Bole District which are the main beneficiaries of this project as pilot are located north of Bole on the main Bole-Bamboi trunk road and were selected from four communities visited during the exploratory phase. They were selected based on the fact that their lands are exploited and degraded due to excessive commercial charcoal production with piles of charcoal are found in each household and on the sides of the main trunk road .
Sakpa has a population of 1028 made up of 511 and 517 females, while Bekweikura has a population of about 710 comprising of 309 males and 410 females. Both communities have the indigenous people (landowners) and settlers (Dagarti or Brifo ) communities living together. They are mostly farming communities. Also at the preparatory stage these two communities expressed greater interest and enthusiasm in taking action in replanting trees, conserving natural regeneration sites and building their capacity in improved shea-butter processing, bee-keeping and efficient charcoal production. The rough numbers of interested participants were obtained and utilised in projecting the numbers, gender and areas of interest.
In these two communities, the landscape is rapidly being degraded as a result of deforestation for commercial charcoal production and other human activities. This has led to the exposure of vast expanse of the landscape to degradation and declining crop yields hence increasing poverty in the area and District.
Most women (80%) and to a lesser extent men (20%) are engaged in commercial charcoal production and sale to augment their incomes. They use inefficient methods to produce the charcoal leading to greater destruction of trees including local economic trees to meet their needs thus destroying their future income base.
Our initial interactions with the people in the Districts and in these two communities in particular, indicates that there is inadequate environmental awareness of the landscape degradation and its future effects on the people; the culture of tree planting is little known or practiced; limited livelihood sources leading to the over- exploitation of the woodland for fuel-wood. If current levels of deforestation for charcoal production are not reduced or mitigation measures put in place such as providing efficient methods of charcoal production or replanting of degraded lands, the situation will be precarious and unsustainable. The project below seeks to reverse the trend and the results or outcomes are indicated below.

Project Objectives and expected Results.

This project entitled ‘Promoting an integrated community landscape management and alternate livelihoods in the Bole district’ was prepared by PAPADEV. The goal is to contribute to enhancing sustainable forest and agro-forest landscape management for biodiversity conservation. The Primary Objective is to promote Community landscape rehabilitation, management and livelihood restoration in two communities; notably in Sakpa and Bekwei-kura located south of Bole on the Bole- Bamboi trunk road and within the Black Volta river landscape.

Objectives and Expected Results

Through this project we seek to achieve the following specific objectives:
1. To increase community awareness of the effects of climate change on biodiversity conservation, sustainable land management and livelihood development within the Black Volta Basin
2. To increase tree cover of the landscape through natural regeneration, enrichment planting, establishment of woodlots, agroforestry, organic agriculture and planting of trees on farms and within settlements.
3. To enhance the capacity of charcoal producers in efficient methods of carbonization and introduction of clean woodstoves for domestic and commercial users
4. To support local women to establish livelihood enterprises, including improved shea-butter processing, bee-keeping and small ruminant rearing.

Expected Outputs/results

1. 500 community people in two communities and 10,000 radio listeners in the district aware about their landscape degradation and rehabilitation options.
2. 50 ha of degraded woodland under sustainable management (20 ha. of degraded landscapes restored and maintained as woodlots; 30 ha. of indigenous community conserved woodland areas natural regeneration and managed and 2 Community Conservation Committees (10 members each) formed and 10 ha of farms under agroforestry and organic agriculture).
3. 40 Charcoal producers (80% women) adopt efficient charcoal production skills and 100 households adopt improved clean woodstoves
4. 60 people engaged in livelihood enterprise development (20 bee-keepers; 2 women’s groups (20 women) of charcoal producers skilled in beekeeping/ honey production using modern technology 40 Charcoal producers (100% women) and other women in two communities skilled in and using improved shea-butter processing with value addition methods).

Project Implementation Strategy

The main strategies for realizing the objectives are to provide a holistic and integrated approach to handling the issues of the rapid degradation of the landscape/environment and actions necessary to reduce the phenomenon including sensitization of the people about the issues; Taking action in replanting of trees as individuals or groups as woodlots or fruit tree plantations; conservation of natural regenerating forests and woodland, replanting degraded areas and putting these areas under community management; Building capacity of the people or providing skills in the efficient methods of charcoal production and the provision of alternative livelihood ventures such as bee-keeping and improved Shea-butter processing with value addition in the two communities instead of a piecemeal approach is envisaged.

The baseline data collected will provide precise information on number of people or groups to be involved, what resources are required so that precise indicators, targets can be set for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

About 2 Community durbars(at beginning, and end of project) and school talks and 4 radio programmes targeting particularly women, men and youth and school children from beneficiary communities to help send relevant messages about the project to all including school children who are the future custodians of the environment. The radio programmes will involve community people and district stakeholders sharing experiences and discussing of issues of concern to the project.

Our initial survey indicates that communities are interested in undertaking individual or group woodlots or fruit tree plantations hence will be organized into groups; registered and assisted to prepare lands, peg, plant and nurture the plant seedlings, while charcoal producing groups will be assisted to produce a woodlot each for their future needs. To ensure rapid growing of seedling, beneficiaries would be encouraged and assisted partially by the project to plough the land before planting whereby they can interplant with improved crop seeds as groundnuts, cowpea and maize or soya beans for inter-planting with tree seedlings in first year with payback arrangements in place for others to benefit in future.

Some natural regenerating community woodlands or forests with diverse species of important local trees used for medicinal, local fruits or forage will be conserved or rehabilitated managed by communities. Local management Committees will be formed in each community and trained to assist in the management and enforcement of local laws to guide the use of these natural regenerating sites. Some enrichment planting will be carried-out in degraded parts of these reserved sites/areas.
Also, about 80% of women in the communities are actively involved in the commercial Charcoal production or trade, hence they will be organised into cooperatives or groups with other men, trained in group dynamics, small business management or village savings culture and efficient or improved methods of charcoal production using the improved Sisala method and metal kiln method with efficiency of about 30-40%. They will be used on rotational basis by the groups and some profits used to acquire more metal kilns.
In order to reduce the dependence on charcoal trade, a number of training activities in alternate livelihood ventures are envisaged such as improved shea-butter processing with value addition skills, and bee-keeping will be provided for the people as well as other alternative livelihood ventures such as improved shea-butter processing with value addition and beekeeping to reduce dependence on charcoal production. In both cases appropriate equipment will be provided to facilitate production of shea-butter and honey to generate income.
Finally, some intermittent workshops will be organized for stakeholders such as Community groups, relevant District Assembly personnel, traditional Authorities to share experiences at some stages of the project implementation to help remove bottle necks and ensure sustainability. The experiences gained will be discussed on radio and extended yearly to new communities if approved and cover a wider area of the Black Volta landscape in the Bole district.
1.4 Description of project Activities
Output 1: 500 community people in two communities and 10,000 radio listeners in the district aware about their landscape degradation and rehabilitation options
Planned Activities
Form and train 7-member project management committees (PMCs)in the two communities
1.1 Compile and collate baseline data on the 2 beneficiary communities to assist set indicators and targets.
1.2 Organize 2 community durbars and talks in Schools and on radio to sensitize the people on landscape degradation and management options.
1.3 Organize community meeting and durbars on climate change
1.4 Organize field visits to best practiced areas in landscape restoration.
1.5 Establish and support school environmental clubs
Output 2: 100 ha of degraded woodland under sustainable management (20 ha. of degraded landscapes restored and maintained as woodlots; 60 ha. of indigenous community conserved woodland areas natural regeneration and managed and 2 Community Conservation Committees (10 members each) formed and 20 ha of farms under agroforestry and organic agriculture).
Planned Activities
2.1 Form and project activity groups (tree nursery, woodlot and agroforestry, and organic agriculture)
2.2 Establish two community tree nurseries in Sakpa and Bekweikura for the production of tree seedlings for woodlots and fruit tree plantations establishment.
2.3 Organize field training for nursery operators; agroforestry and organic farming groups
2.4 Support farmers/groups to establish and use compost pits to prepare compost.
2.5 Train farmers in mixed farming technology and support them to establish agroecological farms
2.6 Establish and manage about 20 ha of natural regenerating woodland sites/plots in 2 communities.
Output 3: 40 Charcoal producers (80% women) adopt efficient charcoal production skills and 100 households adopt improved clean woodstoves
Planned Activities
3.1 Organize about 40 charcoal producers into Cooperatives and train them in improved or efficient methods of charcoal production, group dynamics and small business management and village savings activities.
3.2 Support the charcoal producers to acquire and use mobile kiln in the production of charcoal.
3.3 Train 100 women household heads in the construction of improved energy efficient woodfuel stoves for domestic use
3.4 Train 20 local artisans in the construction of commercial and industrial energy efficient woodfuel stoves
Output 4: 120 people engaged in livelihood enterprise development
Planned Activities
4.1 Train and support 30 beneficiaries (60% women) in bee-keeping
4.2 Train and support 40 charcoal producers and other women in target communities in improved shea-butter processing
4.3 Operate village saving and loan scheme among the project beneficiaries.