Living with Wildlife: Improving Livelihoods in the Mole Ecological Landscape.

Background

The North and North-western boundaries of the Mole National Park (MNP) which border the western and eastern wildlife corridors of the MNP are the migratory highway for elephants, buffalos, hartebeest, and other species of conservation concern. The animals ply these routes to connect from Mole National Park to the Nazinga Game Reserve and the Kabore Tambi National Park in neighbouring Burkina Faso. The Chakali Sungmaaluu and Moagduri Wuntanluri Kuwomsaasi (MWK) CREMAs are in these boundaries with communities such as Tantala, Zukpani, Holomuni, Gbatala and Grumbelle among others.However, because of poor participatory management of the Mole National Park with park-fringing communities, inadequate nature-based livelihoods and low law enforcement, these ungulates (Buffalos, hartebeest, elephants) and carnivores are exposed to high levels of poaching for bushmeat and body parts trading. The trading of these wildlife body parts and bushmeat is illegal, unsustainable and is deepening the levels of poverty in the area.

As part of efforts and measures to get the community to desist from such unsustainable trade and practices, the project, ‘Living with wildlife’ seeks to train and support men and women in the two CREMAs to implement nature-based sustainable livelihood measures that will reduce poverty and inequality. The project will further increase resilience and productivity of farms by introducing and developing agroforestry system. The project will contribute to strengthening collaborative wildlife management with the park-fringing communities through building capacity and capabilities of members of the targeted CREMAs.

Output

We envisage to achieve the objectives of the project through:

Provision of nature-based livelihoods,
Introduction and development of agroforestry systems
Capacity building of the MWK and Chakali Sungmaaluu CREMAs on wildlife management.

Expected Outcome

Better farming and increased yield
Increased income to community members
Communities and park management relationship renewed.
Increased law enforcement and patrols in the area.
Decreased poaching pressure on the wildlife in the mole national park.

Objective

The objective is to empower park-fringing communities for increased community benefits and participatory wildlife management.

PROGRESS OF IMPLEMENTATION AS OF END OF YEAR 1

In consultations with key stakeholders, project interventions have been distributed across all 34 communities of the 2 CREMAs. Every community of the two CREMAs benefits from at least one intervention of the project.
120 women from Grumbelle, Chagu and Tantala have been trained in safe and sustainable shea nut collection using the shea rollers. Each of the women was equipped with a shea roller, a basin, a pair of PVC gloves and a pair of safety Wellington boots as a boost for their shea nut collection enterprises.
40 beneficiaries have been trained in sustainable rodent farming and each of the beneficiaries has been supplied with a cage stocked with Togo hares.
40 beneficiaries trained in Apiculture and supplied with 80 bee hives and associated accessories.
Concerning Agroforestry, 180 farmers from the two CREMAs have been engaged and selected. 178 farms have been mapped with a GPS. A total land area of 210 hectares is available for the establishment of the agroforestry system.
A two-day capacity-building workshop on CREMA management, law enforcement, gender, leadership and wildlife laws of Ghana has been organized for the executives of the Chakali Sungmaaluu CREMA.