Solo Forest

In all the complaining and partying with flight attendants, I've yet to post about what I am actually doing here. This is the first of what I hope will be many substantive posts. On another note, I also found a decent Internet cafe- no screaming kids, no bad R&B, no mosquitoes, with air conditioning and a decent connection speed. It was sort of hidden (for good reason, I guess). So i'm in business. Here goes!
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The environmental degradation in Ghana is astounding. There is no land use planning, and no respect for the environment. The entire area around Accra used to be a large tropical rain forest. Almost none remains. Near the beach where I spent the weekend (Kokrobite), there is one stand of old growth trees known as Solo Forest, perhaps the last within two hours drive of Accra. The only reason why it survived this long is because within this small forest (about 300 acres) is a fresh water spring that is sacred to the local Ga people. However, believe it or not, some members of the community are actually attempting to destroy this remaining forest and claim the land as their own.


Whenever there is a new development, the first thing to go are the trees (not to mention the monkeys who live in the trees). In fact, even during my visit, there were people knocking over palm trees to get a few cents worth of palm wine out of the root of the tree. That kills the tree, which is unfortunate since there are not a lot of trees standing in the area.

Its really depressing. Into this mess, an American woman I met by the name of Dorinda Kline, and her friend Ellis, a local, have set up the Solo Forest Foundation. The goal of the foundation is to save the remaining forest and replant a part of the forest on an adjacent barren hillside. It's a great spot, which a view clear to the sea. Dorinda and Ellis have the support of the local chiefs and some other prominent members of the community and have plans to plant 5,000 new trees, educate the local children about the value of environmental conservation, and even open a visitor's center of sorts. Its an ambitious project, but Dorinda and Ellis's enthusiasm and dedication is amazing, and I think that they just might do it.

Here is a picture of Dorinda, Ellis and Ellis's kids. You can see the forest in the background on the right and get a sense of what the area around the forest looks like (treeless):


I've only just gotten involved in the whole volunteering/economic development world but I can already see that while good intentions abound, often there is little to show for it. Since I'm new to this, I'll reserve my thoughts on the value of what I'm doing with the Development Institute for another time. My feeling is that the Solo Forest Foundation is one of those projects that has a reasonable chance of making an important impact on the local community, and deserves my support. I hope that as I travel around Ghana, I find more like it.