The Atewa Range Forest Reserve, home to unique, diverse and often threatened flora and fauna species faces several pressures, and in more recent times illegal mining and potential bauxite mining. Rufford Foundation through past funded interventions in the landscape, has supported assessment of the ecosystem services and benefits of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, creation and supporting of forest buffer zones around the reserve, awareness raising targeting different actors in the landscape including school children, and advocacy to elevate the status of Atewa Range Forest Reserve to a national park. This project builds on the momentum, interest and collaboration of key stakeholders to sustain and strengthen awareness and advocacy for elevation of Atewa to a national park, reclaim and build additional forest buffer around the reserve and provide alternative livelihood enhancement initiatives for community members as incentive to protect and conserve the forest.

The project will aim to deliver the following:

Outcome 1: Statutory and mandated institutions are supported to provide sustainable alternative livelihoods training and start-ups to forest fringe communities.

The lessons learned from the previous project indicated that there is strong interest from communities to adopt new livelihood improvement skills, supply chains to be fully developed and enhanced and linked to sustainable financing.

Outcome 2: Forest buffer areas strengthened through farm forest systems and abandoned mine pits are reclaimed through strengthened community forestry management structures.

The project will work strongly with Forestry Commission to supply and provide technical support to farmers to rehabilitate degraded areas in the buffer zone around the forest reserves. Consequently, Community Forest Committees (CFCs) will be created from community farmer-based associations and strengthened to provide technical support in terms of silvicultural practices, monitoring of the buffer areas among others.

Outcome 3: Advocacy for elevation of the status of Atewa intensified as communities and the general population enhance their knowledge and awareness of benefits and threats to Atewa and adopt indigenous and practical ways to conserve the reserve.

The project will work with the community radios to design, mainstream and institutionalize a regular radio session dedicated to discussing issues surrounding the forest reserve and ramping up public support for elevating the status of the reserve to a national park. The project team will continue to use its knowledge of the local context, interest and awareness built to influence national level discourse and push for the elevation of the reserve.