In Ghana the usual problems of food insecurity are apparent: low yields, insufficient produce, poor storage facilities, inadequate processing facilities, vulnerable water supplies. In addition, throughout the North of Ghana, accelerating rates of deforestation are bringing new pressures on the environment and the people who rely on it for their livelihood.

Considerable resources are being mobilised to attempt to address some of these problems. Tree-planting is a particularly attractive initiative for many donors, and NGOs such as Amasachina have been able to attract large grants in order to encourage villages to plant trees. Some such programmes use a system of incentives by which farmers are paid a certain amount for every tree seedling surviving after an agreed period (perhaps two years). Too often in such cases, a proportion of farmers simply plough up their fields again after receiving their payment - a sure sign that deeper commitment to sustainable forest management was not established. Many NGOs, including Village Aid, have funded seedling nurseries in specific villages in which there have been expressed priorities for such initiatives. These have more chance of success because they are more intensively supported than the larger programmes.

The problem with nearly all approaches to the issue or deforestation in particular, is that they deal mainly with the symptoms Deforestation is a manifestation of deeper problems which must be addressed in order to address deforestation itself. The critical underlying problem is the weakness of village capacity.

Although communities rely on trees and understand their importance, other priorities often seem more immediate, and there is a lack of awareness of the way in which meeting such competing priorities can add to pressure on the environment. More generally, there is a lack of organisational capacity to manage and sustain tree-planting initiatives. This limited capacity is exacerbated by many interventions by institutions which focus on symptoms rather than causes and fail to empower local communities in planning and decision-making. A "project" mentality, focused for instance, on numbers of trees planted, or surviving after two years, usually leads to short-term results and limited sustainability. Local NGO partners are paid to assist the community in managing a nursery, or securing the seedlings against fire. They are not usually given the resources to address, over a much longer period of time, the deep-seated cultural and social issues involved in forest management. Nor do the NGOs request such funding; their concern is to ensure a flow of project funds and associated management support.

The ad hoc approach, typically involving many agencies implementing similar but different projects involving their own staff, simply adds to the confusion at local level. A village might work with one NGO on an incentive basis, but then with another that expects the villagers to pay for seedlings.

Such confusion could be avoided if there was regular and effective support throughout the region from Government extension services. Unfortunately, these services, which often have highly competent staff, are terribly under-researched. A second, linked problem, is that too many projects fail to integrate extension service, or if they do involve them, fail to provide resources. When collaboration is established, it is usually for the life of a project, with no impact beyond the funding cycle. Such collaboration is externally driven, exclusive, and unsustainable.

To establish a model of co-operative partnership networking between grass-roots communities, NGOs, and State agencies.

To maximise the effectiveness of development efforts to establish systems of sustainable agriculture and community forest management.

To enhance the capacity of grass-roots communities in 4 districts of the Northern Region of Ghana in order to establish self-generated and self-maintained processes of development and to secure their current and future food and environmental requirements.

• To establish processes of collaboration between Amasachina, Gub Katimali, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Forestry Department, communities, and locally based research institutions.
• To establish appropriate structures and systems in order to facilitate partnership between all stakeholders in community forest management and sustainable agriculture.
• To ensure that all stakeholders understand the roles, responsibilities and rights determined by their "stake", and also the roles, responsibilities and rights of other stakeholders.
• To increase the capacity of the NGOs and state agencies involved in the project to identify and utilise community traditions and resources for development, and to provide appropriate technical support to community forest management and sustainable agriculture initiatives.
• To increase awareness amongst all project stakeholders, of priorities and constraints at community level with respect to management of forest resources and agricultural development.
• To clarify the dynamic interface between women and community forest management and food production.
• To identify and train community leaders for forest management and sustainable agriculture, in 32 villages in the Northern Region of Ghana.
• To encourage self-generated and self-maintained skills development in community forest management and sustainable agriculture.
• To identify the key resources and competencies required for sustainable forest management and long-term food security, and to prepare a detailed long-term programme of support.
• To mobilise communities to utilise existing resources to undertake initiatives to promote food security and /or effective forest resource management.