Relations between the youth of Jama village 1n the Bole district of northern Ohana and their elders became strained when they challenged the decisions of the village chief to lease out more than 14 km 6f forest to charcoal burners.

The village elders condemned the youth as disrespectful. saying they were violating the traditions of this west African country which require the young to accept the decisions of the elders.

For their part, the youth saw the intentions of the chief councils of village elders aa being motivated by selfishness and lack of concern for the Welfare of the future generation.

"We have been silent on many issues for far too long. In most cases, we could not act because we were not directly responsible for the administration of this village. But this time, when we saw that the future of us young farmers was being Jeopardised we decided to act," said Robert Jabi, a technical skills teacher at the local school. "We had to stop the charcoal burner* from pushing us Into a calamitous end," he said.

Youth of Jama have travelled to the nbrthern parts of the count™ and have seen the extent of environmental degradation and how tt has affected the subsistence economies there.

Ironically, those Involved in the charcoal business. Sissala tribesmen, are from the Upper West Region In northern Ghana where, like the Upper East Region, environmental degradation is . most pronounced.

They have finished felling all the trAs in their hometowns and now want to turn to other areas. Should we allow

them to operate here, we would not find single tree in this place in the next four years," said Kofi Togbc, a cadre of the local Civil Defence Organisation.

They do not want that to happen to their village surrounded by a vast unprotected woodlands and secondary forests spanning more than 148 sq. km.

But for the timely Intervention of the youth of the village, a heavy blow would have been dealt to the forests and wood-

lands of the area. Unknown lo the youth, the chief and some elders had collected a good sum of money from the charcoal burners and given them a specific area where they could fell trees for charcoal production.

According to Jabi, by the time a group of the village youth got to the spot where the charcoal burners were felling the trees, more than an estimated three hectares of

dense woodlands were stripped bare of trees.

They caused this havoc In less than four hours. Can you imagine that this work was executed by only eight men? Three of them did the felling with chain-saw machines while Ihc rest gathered the felled pieces in heaps," Jabi recounted. pointing at 17 large heaps of felled, mainly mahogany, trees.

The plunderers said they had paid money lo the village chief to get his permission to

fell the tecs for charcoal production.

The youth came back to the village with the charcoal-burners and through the chiefs adviser. who is also responsible for youth affairs, Asked the chief to give the charcoal burners' money back to them.

Most of the young people of the village felt betrayed and Indignant about the chiefs explanation that he needed money for use in the- village. Said Peter Kyiu. an adult literacy organiser: "We managed to mobilise funds and gave them lo Ihc chief for whatever he so badly needed money to do, to such an extent that he had lo allow our forests to be destroyed."

Though not yet an organised environmental group, the youth of Jama are set to protect the environment of their area from all forms of abuse.

They have Identified bushfires as one of their major challenges and taken it upon themselves to educate their community on the need to handle fires with care.

Jabi. a carpentry graduate, has taughl fellow villagers the Importance of certain tree species in the wood-working and construction Industries. The youth have also secured some cooperation from the chief on environmental matters. He recently advised local farmers not to farm along rivers and streams, as this causes the walers to dry up.

Their efforts are bearing fruit. More and more villagers have come to understand why their harvests arc becoming poorer with each passing year. They arc Joining in the crusade lo protect the forest and the land on which they depend for their livelihood.

— Gemini News