NGOs to validate efficacy of 300 herbal plants

Have, April 28, GNA - The Environmental and Development Youth Movement (EDYM), an eco-restoration and preservation NGO in the Volta Region and USAID supported Agri-Business and Sustainable African Plants Products, an Accra based NGO, are to validate the efficacy of 300 medicinal plants. Mr Paul Kpai, the Executive Director of EDYM's Weto Range Forest Conservation Project, said at an end-of-project evaluation meeting at Have in the Hohoe Municipal Area.

He said the plants were thought to have curative and control properties against high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis among others. Mr Kpai said EDYM was also in collaboration with some groups in Togo to track medicinal plants extinct in Ghana but available in Togo for cultivation in Ghana.

He said the objective of the UNDP supported project was to "mobilize the youth in rural development to conserve natural resources through sustainable agricultural practices and reforestation programmes". The three-year project covered seven communities inhabiting the mountain ranges around Have, including Liati and the Afadjato areas. Mr Kpai said over the period the project worked at weaning the people off old ways of relating with the forest resulting in the fast degeneration of forest resources.

He said the project's well designed anti-bush fire messages resulted in the area not experiencing any bush fire since 2006. Mr Kpai said the people no longer farm on hill sides and with a collective will to respect local hunting conventions, the greenery of the area was returning to normal.

He mentioned the intransigence of chainsaw operators who resorte to cutting trees in the night as a big challenge that was contained. Mr Kpai said the people were exposed to alternative livelihood activities such as honey making, fruit farming and grass-cutter rearing. Colonel Cyril Necku (RTD), the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, expressed regret about the deterioration of the Range that had been home to economic trees and rare species of animals. He urged the group to sustain the gains made so far by making the people own the initiative. 28 April 10