Rainforest Alliance wants respect for human rights in cocoa growing areas

Rainforest Alliance, a non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has called for efforts to address human right related issues in cocoa growing and mining areas.

This, they stressed, could negatively affect biodiversity conservation and farmer livelihoods if not checked.

They made the call at a stakeholder engagement on integrated landscape management on forest management at Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western North Region.

The stakeholders identified workers’ rights, force labour, women rights, rights of minority groups and rights of persons with disability as some of the critical issues in cocoa growing and mining areas that needed attention.

Mr. Eric Brobbey, a lawyer with the legal Aid Commission in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after a presentation, explained that it was not wrong for parents to pass their profession unto their children, but such activities should not impede their health or education.

He asked parents to desist from using their children for activities that were beyond their strength since that could be detrimental to their wellbeing.

Ms Matlida Agyapong, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the Rainforest Alliance explained that the engagement formed part of the Landscape and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) project.

It is Co-founded by the European Union (EU) and seeks to address barriers identified in three identified landscapes across the Savannah High Forest and Transitional ecological zones of the country.

This, she explained, had an objective to ensure forest resources were protected while farmers’ livelihood was also improved.

She said the objective could only be achieved through a collaborative effort from stakeholders to improve farmers livelihood and conserve biodiversity.

Ms Agyapong advised farmers to take climate change issues seriously and help protect natural resources.

Source: GNA