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Adapting to a Changing Environment

Bright Generation Community Foundation

Kumasi, 加纳

An Overview Of Our Solution

Who is this solution impacting?
生态系统
Forests
Forests
社区类型
Rural
Rural
Additional Information
  • Population Impacted:
  • Continent: Africa
General Info

地址

Box 7452
Kumasi
加纳

电子邮件

bernice@ghanabamboobikes.org
Problem

受影响的人口

80000

尺寸

60 square miles

主要职业

Farming

社区所依赖的本地资源,以及用于什么目的

land and forest cover

对资源的本地威胁

soil degradation and deforestation

气候危害

The climate hazards the community is currently most concerned about are soil degradation through irresponsible mining and deforestation due to illegal felling of trees.

敏感度等级

These hazards constitute a menace to the local community because they affect people?s livelihoods. Land degradation results in land becoming uncultivable, and deforestation lays the land bare, increasing the menace of desertification through persistent drought.

适应能力水平

The community ability to cope with these hazards is minimal. Without government intervention, they cannot restore land degraded by illegal mining to its natural state. The removal of the forest cover also results in soil infertility, reducing agricultural yields. The cumulative result of this is migration of the affected people from the rural area to the urban centres, creating unemployment and increased poverty.
Solution

The innovation introduced to cope with climate change is the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative. The main advantage of the initiative is that it has undoubted environment benefits. The increased cultivation of bamboo as an alternative to wood is helping the preservation and rehabilitation of Ghana?s dwindling forests. The bamboo bike has a number of environmentally friendly qualities and virtually no negative ecological impact because of the total absence of carbon emission. Bamboo helps to improve air and water quality in areas where it is grown. Its root system is constructed in such a way as to reduce soil erosion, a major concern for many farmers. It does not leach many nutrients from the ground, as it pulls silica from the soil. Another major advantage of this innovation is that less electricity is used to build a bamboo bike, hence the resolve to turn to solar powered appliances. Bamboo used for bamboo bikes is not treated with the same chemicals used for standard bamboo treatment. Consequently, there is no need to dispose of chemicals and people do not come into contact with chemically treated bamboo. The process, as an inclusive business initiative, offers alternative livelihoods to beneficiary communities. Unemployed youths and women receive training in bamboo bicycle manufacturing, bamboo cultivation and burning of bamboo for charcoal in place of wood. By improving soil fertility through the cultivation of bamboo, food security is improved. The project?s tree planting component, which is projected to result in the planting of 2 million trees over a 5-year period is intended to regenerate the forest cover to stop the adverse effects of climate change.

Results

生态成本

Increased activity of illegal Miners and loggers outside the zones identified for project work

生态效益

Increase in bamboo plantations and trees planted for reforestation. Improved biodiversity due to restoration of land and forest cover

用于衡量效益的经济指标

Number of bamboo trees harvested. Areas grown with bamboo seedlings Acreage of tree planting. Number of people engaged in project activities especially women and unemployed youth Brake on rural-urban drift

社区/社会成本

Time used to prepare youth training program Establishment of bamboo plantations and nursing tree seedling, where necessary

社区/社会福利

Increased awareness and support for our innovative solution as an inclusive business model from which the community benefits by engagement in the resultant value chains

用于衡量福利的社区/社会指标

The number of community members taking part in project activities as suppliers of bamboo, burners of bamboo charcoal, makers of briquettes and local producers of bamboo parts / products. Income earned from these sources as evidence of improved living conditions

经济成本

-Cost of obtaining inputs both local and imported ($450,000) -cost of organizing community meetings($40,000) -Cost of job training and establishing bamboo plantations ($380,000) -Cost of sensitizing educational institutions on tree planting exercise ($80,000)

经济效益

Additional income from export of bamboo bikes. Greater international recognition marked by winning of awards, thereby spreading the renown of our initiative to increase potential sources of funds

用于衡量效益的生态指标

Production of project reports to funding institutions and suppliers of inputs (eg.INBAR,GEF). Liaising with media to expand scope of the solution?s success and sustainability. Proper adhesion to environmental guidelines to establish solutions status as a role model.

您的社区在实施此解决方案时面临哪些挑战?

. The challenges our community faced in implementing this solution included the following: a). lack of support from local opinion leaders like Chiefs who were themselves engaged in some of the illegal activities. b). lack of community resources (eg.financial) to make a meaningful contribution to the implementation c). unfamiliarity with the bamboo bike concept, making it difficult for community members to embrace the initiative as a means of solving the problem The risks to the continued success of this solution are: a). potential lost of our competitive edge as more bamboo bike manufacturers enter the market; b).sudden increase in the prices of imported parts due to foreign exchange instability; c).an unexpected natural disaster such as torrential rainfall which can cause flooding and destroy all the work that has been done. The above challenges were solved through: a). regular public education programs b). granting community members small loans in cash or kind to enable them to implement the project c).direct supervision and supply of appropriate inputs such as community lands and improved seedlings.

Action

描述用于开发解决方案的基于社区的流程,包括使用的工具和流程

The community-based process used to develop the solution, including tools and processes: Socio-economic assessment of the impact of climate change conducted confirmed the ecological degradation and threat to the livelihoods of community members. Most vulnerable stakeholder groups were identified through interviews and public symposia where they gave free expression to the difficulties they had to encounter as a result of climate change. They were thus part of the decision-making process. Partners involved in these assessments included government agencies like SRI, CSIR (INBAR), other NGOs and UN specialized agencies such as FAO, WHO and WFP. INBAR supplied improved bamboo seedlings for the establishment of bamboo plantations and the Forestry Commission provided tree seedlings. The period of implementation was one year and this enabled us to get a full picture of the problem. Current management system used to support the solution The Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative is the principal project initiated by the Bright Generation Community Foundation (BGCF) as a tool for combating the adverse impact of climate change. For this reason, the solution is directly controlled by the management systems established by BGCF. The system as presented below, is dynamic and designed to respond to any emergency that may arise in the course of implementation. The apex body is the Board of Directors, which is responsible for formulating policies and guidelines for managing the NGO.It appoints the top management personnel including the Chief Operating Officer (Ms Bernice Dapaah) Then comes the management team. In addition to the CEO, the management staff comprises: The Principal Administrative/ Finance Officer. He is Mr.Kodjo Ansah-Sem, a graduate of the University of Ghana, the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and of the University of Bordeaux and the University of Paris-Dauphine both in France. He is a former official of the Ministry of Finance, the Ghana Commercial Bank and a retired Senior Translator of the African Development Bank, Abidjan. He retired in 1999 after 17 years? service. Mr.Ansah-Sem acts as Secertary to the Board and Executive Director responsible for the general supervision of the organization?s operations. Mr. Louis Appiah, a product of the Sunyani Polytechnic is Marketing and Public Relations officer. He holds the Professional Higher Diploma in Human Resource Development and Marketing. Mr. Amos Agyapong, holder of HND Building Technology from the Ho Polytechnic. He is responsible for the Mechanical Engineering aspects of bicycle manufacturing and the building of workshop structures. He is the IT specialist in charge of the Solution?s management information system. Mr. Chris Trees (Engineer) External Consultant based in Shanghai, China. He is responsible for the design and manufacture of bicycle parts. Dr.Ernest Foli (Senior Research Fellow) Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Ghana . Adviser on Environmental Issues. Mr. Ibrahim Kadjo, Project Officer - Responsible for Coordinating matters relating to the Solution. He is in charge of our Accra workshop. Accounts Officer. He prepares the organization?s Annual Budget and Accounts. External Auditor-Auditing of organization?s Accounts The management system that runs the Solution therefore comprises competent staff who ensure that the solution is run in line with the principles of sound administration. This ensures the timely execution of tasks and the ability to meet targets satisfactorily. It is in recognition of this remarkable management system that the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, the flagship project of Bright Generation Community Foundation, has won the following outstanding international awards: ? World Business and Development Award Winner 2012 ? Samsung/Generations For Peace Award Winner 2012 ? 2012 UN Habitat/Dubai International Best Practice ? 2nd Runner Up 2012 International Road Federation InARoad Awards ? GIZ Impact Business Award Winner 2011 ? Imagine Nations Global Business Plan Competition Award Winner 2011 ? UNEP Seed Initiative Award Winner 2010

关注的气候危害

Other

您的解决方案如何减少暴露和缓冲/保护受影响的生态系统?

The actions of the Bamboo Bike initiative, fully embraced by the community who are active partners and stakeholders, have brought a large measure of relief to the community.

Scale

这个解决方案可以在其他地方复制吗?

This solution can be replicated elsewhere because the conditions that require our intervention exist in other parts of the country. Again, bamboo grows abundantly in our part of the world and can easily be used for both bicycle manufacturing and soil restoration. It has not yet been replicated but we have already acquired two sites for the establishment of bamboo plantations where the project can be replicated. What makes our solution innovative is that it is an inclusive business model. This model is a sustainable, commercially viable business initiative whose community-based nature expands access for low-income or marginalized people to goods and services, or improves their livelihoods by-engagement in value chains as direct employees, suppliers or distributors. Our innovative solution is therefore a real asset in that both the people of the community and the environment benefit directly from it.

Overview
Solution
Scale
Rare
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