ARDO initiates collaboration between Ghana and Togo to prevent cross-border wildfires

The Accelerated Rural Development Organisation (ARDO) is undertaking an initiative to curb cross-border wildfires along the Akwapim-Togo ranges.

The initiative will involve building consensus among border communities, capacity building, and establishing fire volunteer clubs to safeguard the ecosystem.

Tree and animal species in the Akwapim-Togo ranges along the Ghana-Togo border face extinction due to wildfires, logging, and other human activities.

This also contributes to global warming, thereby affecting the local climate and potentially harming farming.

This development prompted ARDO to create a programme to protect the ecosystem along the border.

The Executive Director of ARDO, Pascal Benson Atiglah, explained that measures are being taken to form a network of communities along the border to focus on preventing wildfires along the Akwapim-Togo range.

He added that Fire Volunteer Squads would be established in the communities, “and provided the necessary training to combat wildfires when necessary.”

However, during a consultative meeting in Leklebi Dodome involving border communities from Ghana and Togo, traditional authorities identified herdsmen as the main culprits behind the wildfires in the area.

They urged ARDO and stakeholders to ensure that leaders of the herdsmen, most of whom reside in the wild, are included in future meetings and are compelled to agree to a no-wildfire policy.

They believe this would prevent them from engaging in bush burning and risking the ecosystem.

The Guan District Chief Executive, Godfried Koku Kofie, called on the communities to work together to eradicate wildfires in the area.

He said this is vital to mitigating the impacts of climate change, as his jurisdiction is “already bearing the brunt.”

He assured the assembly of his commitment to equipping the Fire Volunteer Squads and providing funding to enable them to perform their duties of combating wildfires and protecting vegetation.