World Bank funded credit scheme take-off

Koforidua, Sept. 6, GNA - A workshop for beneficiaries of a 2.5 million-dollar World Bank micro credit scheme designed for fringe communities designated for the Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs) in the country is underway at Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The capacity building workshops being run by the Forestry Commission in conjunction with the Centre for Biodiversity Utilization and Development (CBUD) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was aimed at equipping the participants, who were hitherto dependent on spoils from forest products, to undertake alternative income-generating activities.

Addressing the participants, Mr M.O. Abebrese, acting Executive Director of the Forestry Services, said the project was aimed at helping to decrease to the barest minimum, the dependence of the communities on forest products in their communities.

Mr Abebrese warned the participants not to misapply funds that would be allocated to them so as to realize the objectives of the project.

The Director of CBUD, Dr Amoako Atta, noted that the project was one of the most sustainable ways of ending the cycle of poverty in communities subsisting on forest products. He gave the assurance of the KNUST to help manage the project in a most professional manner that would ensure that not only does it become a success, but also the starting point of the poverty alleviation programmes in the country. He said participants would be trained in the art of snail and grass cutter rearing, cultivation of leafy and medicinal plants and the rearing of ruminants.