Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Every year many trees are cut all over the country for timber, firewood, charcoal, farm-
ing activities and more. Have you ever stopped to think about the importance of trees
to man?
Just look around you. You will find several uses of trees (wood). Think about many things
in your schools, offices, homes, churches, mosques and what have you, which are made
from wood.
But the trees have many more uses than you can think of. They help us in rainfall, fertil-
ize the soil, check erosion, are used for medical purposes, and give us oxygen to breathe
and more.
Trees are so important that we must take very good care of them. We must only cut them
when it is very necessary to do so. As far as possible we must plant new trees in place of
those we cut and at places where there are none.
Have in mind that when the last tree dies the last man will also die. (Reportedly composed
by Vida Kumi, a pupil of the local authority junior secondary school, Tinkong.)
REFERENCES
Abdulai, A. S., E. A. Gyasi, and S. K. Kufogbe with assistance of P. K. Adraki,
F. Asante, M. A. Asumah, B. Z. Gandaa, B. D. Ofori, and A. S. Sumani, “Mapping
of settlements in an evolving PLEC demonstration site in northern Ghana: An exam-
ple in collaborative and participatory work”,
PLEC News and Views
, No. 1, 1999,
pp. 19-24.
Gyasi, E. A., “Development of demonstration sites in Ghana”,
PLEC News and Views
,
No. 18, 2001, pp. 20-28.
Gyasi, E. A. and E. Nartey, “Adding value to forest conservation by beekeeping
at Sekesua-Osonson demonstration site in Ghana”,
PLEC News and Views
,New
Series 1, March, 2003, pp. 12-14, available from http://c3.unu.edu/plec/; also
http://rspas.unu.edu.au/anthropology/plec.html.
Gyasi, E. A. and J. I. Uitto, eds,
Environment, Biodiversity, and Agricultural Change in
West Africa: Perspectives from Ghana
, Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1997.
Gyasi, E., G. T. Agyepong, E. Ardayfio-Schandorf, L. Enu-Kwesi, J. S. Nabila, and
E. Owusu-Bennoah, “Production pressure and environmental change in the forest-
savanna zone of southern Ghana”,
Global Environmental Change
, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1995,
pp. 355-366.
Owusu-Bennoah, E. and L. Enu-Kwesi, “Investigating into trees that combine effectively
with field crops”,
PLEC News and Views
, No. 18, 2000, pp. 20-22.
Padoch, C., “Spotting expertise in a diverse and dynamic landscape”, in H. Brookfield,
Christine Padoch, Helen Parsons, and Michael Stocking, eds,
Cultivating Biodiversity:
Understanding, Analysing and Using Agricultural Diversity
, London: ITDG Publishing,
2002, pp. 96-104.
Padoch, C. and M. Pinedo-Vasquez, “Demonstrating PLEC: A diversity of approaches”,
PLEC News and Views
, No. 13, 1999, pp. 32-34.
