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Project beneficiary carrying project basin and holding shearoller received through the project. Credit – Obed Yaoseh.

Improving livelihoods for women in the
Mole landscape

In Ghana’s Mole National Park, buffalo, hartebeest, elephants, and other wildlife face high levels of poaching for bushmeat and trade, largely driven by limited livelihood opportunities for communities that live near the park and little participation in wildlife management. The project, ‘Living with Wildlife: Improving Livelihoods in the Mole Ecological Landscape’, implemented by the Nature and Development Foundation in partnership with Mole National Park and CK Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, aims to empower local communities by encouraging the protection of wildlife while creating sustainable additional livelihoods.

For example, through this project, women from communities living alongside the national park are seeing improved incomes from an initiative supporting the collection of shea nuts. Before the project, women who collected shea nuts using traditional methods had to bend to the ground to pick the nuts with their bare hands. The work was slow, dirty, and difficult, and some were stung by scorpions or encountered snakes while working in the fields. Bending for long hours to pick up the nuts meant some of the women also complained of waist and back pains.

However, things began to change when 400 women from 10 communities received working tools such as shea rollers, boots, gloves, and basins under the project. The shea rollers help the women collect the nuts faster without bending for long periods, while the boots and gloves protect them from snake bites and other injuries. The basins make it easier to gather and transport the nuts.

The tools have significantly improved their productivity and safety, say the women participating in the project. “Before we received the equipment, the work was very difficult and slow,” said one individual. “Now we can collect about three to four basins of shea nuts in a day.”

“Before we received the equipment, the work was very difficult and slow. Now we can collect about three to four basins of shea nuts in a day.”

The women explained that now by the end of the week they are able to gather more than a full bag of shea nuts, which increases their income and further helps them support their households and pay school expenses for their children.

Written by Obed Yaoseh. For more information on this Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund Main project IWT121, led by Nature and Development Foundation, please click here.