Shea Network decries destruction of shea trees in electrification project
Shea Network Ghana (SNG) has raised concerns about what it describes as “Wanton destruction of shea trees under the government’s rural self-help electrification project currently on-going in some districts in the Northern Region.”
A statement issued by Shea Network Ghana to the Ghana News Agency signed by its National Coordinator, Mr Zakaria Iddi, said: “SNG has noted with disappointment how community members have been mobilised to cut down a number of shea trees to pave way for the erection of electricity poles in two communities (Sensena and Tedrope) in the North Gonja District with permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”
The statement said that “this action if not checked has the potential to worsen economic lives of the rural people, especially women as well as discouraging climate resilience campaigns, violations of international protocols on conservation and biodiversity efforts.”
It said: “Much as we think rural communities need electricity, we are solid in our disposition that to destroy shea trees to erect electricity poles will have adverse effects on the incomes of the rural women, endanger tree species as well as reinforce poverty.”
Noting that this is not the first time communities in the north are being hooked to the national grid,
SNG said better alternatives to deliver electricity must be sought rather than destroying the shea trees.
The statement raised the socio-economic importance of shea, especially in the lives of women in the savannah zone as well as its contributions to the country’s GDP and urged the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), and COCOBOD to add their voices to this call especially when the ministry had announced on May 8, last year, plans to inject some GH₵5 million into the sector within the next two years.
It said: “SNG and its donors, the BUSAC Fund, have over the last two years invested about GH₵200,000 in campaigning for shea conservation in the savannah regions and will be adversely affected if our efforts go unappreciated by government institutions and local communities.”
SNG said the current practice is a direct sabotage of its efforts to conserve the climate and economically empower rural communities where poverty is record high.
“As part of our mandate, we wish to request the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation in granting permit to include guidelines that seek to protect economic trees, while we call on the Ministry of Power to include compensations for rural women affected by these destructions in drafting future projects”, SNG said.
It asked government to amend the Economic Plants Protection Act to include shea so that such destruction will attract economic compensation just like Cocoa, which is currently the only crop listed under the Act.”
It also reminded government of the need to implement the draft sub-sector policy that proposes the establishment of a shea board for a more sustainable development and growth of the sector.
Mr Jafaru Musah Adam, Programme Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Northern Region, told Ghana News Agency that EPA had not granted permit for shea trees to be cut down to erect electricity poles in the communities of the North Gonja District.
SNG is a multi-stakeholder non-profit organization with members at all levels of the shea value chain seeking to influence policy and provide solutions to industry wide challenges for a growing and coordinated shea sector.
Mr Adam said the EPA expected that environmental impact assessment be carried out before undertaking such an exercise so as not to affect the environment.
Source: GNA