2 min read
On the hills of the Atewa Range in south-eastern Ghana lies a jewel of tropical forest. A surviving fragment of the swathes of trees that once cloaked the region, it plays host to a whole array of precious creatures, from eagle owls and flycatchers to rare species of cuckoos and frogs. It’s home to colobus monkeys, too, and a panoply of butterflies, including the giant swallowtail, bearer of the widest wingspan in the world. And it’s home to Susana Afrifa Ankrah, mother, grandmother and cocoa farmer – who is in no doubt of the blessings it brings to her and her family.
“The forest gives us fresh air”, she tells me. “It cools the land. It helps the rains to fall. And if the rains are falling, then the crops will do well and we know everything will be fine.” It’s a medicine cupboard, too. The local herbalists go into the trees to collect remedies for malaria, diabetes and other sicknesses, she adds.
But Susana isn’t just a passive recipient of these forest gifts: it is still there, cloaking the hills, because of her. Her, and others like her: community leaders who are playing a key role in a pioneering scheme that is rewarding local people for protecting the forest in a way that also helps nurture their way of life.
