The Forestry Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme has sponsored two representatives of local community groups to the 29th Conference of Parties (COP 29) of the United Nations Climate Conference in Baku, Azeibaijan.

Mr. Sylvester Mensah, Chairman of the Sefwi-Wiawso Bibiani HIA, and Madam Nallice Adjei, Treasurer of the Juaboso-Bia HIA, represented their communities at the event.

Mr. Mensah mentioned that members of the HIA were so much enthused by the invitation and sponsorship to the two representatives to participate in the COP 29.   He said that the HIA is involved in massive tree planting exercises and that in his view, is their small way of helping in the fight against climate change. He mentioned that the HIA has planted thousands of trees within seven years and they have acquired lands to plant more trees to help curb the negative effects of climate change.

He said that the COP 29 is a platform for learning from other countries which are putting measures in place to fight climate change. “I will share all the experiences I have gathered here with my fellow members of the HIA and this will spur us on to work harder and plant more trees.  It will serve as a platform to encourage illegal operators to go through the legal means of working in the timber industry”, he said.

For Madam Nallice Adjei, the   invitation to attend the COP 29 was a very welcoming news and it was an avenue for members of the HIA to see that the fight against climate change comes with many benefits and learning avenues.  

She mentioned that the Juaboso-Bia HIA has a huge tree population, as they embraced the Trees of Farms module, where farmers in the HIA were made to plant about 18 trees of mixed species on every acre of their farms. “This tree planting module has caught on well with farmers in the HIA because they have realised that the yield of our cocoa trees  have increased significantly since  we started that. And we will continue planting trees and discourage illegal mining in the area to save our environment”

Madam Adjei mentioned that the COP 29 is a learning avenue where she hopes to learn from the experiences of other local communities and apply  the ones applicable in her area.

Earlier on, the two representatives had participated in an event dubbed” Call to Action on Securing Indigeneous Peoples and Local Communities Forest Tenure”, where the Director of Climate Change of Forestry Commission, Ms. Roselyn Fosuah Adjei, appealed  to the donor community for funds to document the lands of local communities.

The representatives also had a meeting with Ms. Carol Burga,  Director , IPLC and Stakeholder Engagement of Emergent, on their work in their various communities. Ms. Carol was pleased to hear that most of the money these communities received were used for developmental projects which benefitted the entire communities.

She encouraged the two representatives to continue with their efforts at mitigating climate change through their awareness creation, sensitisation and tree planting efforts.