Interview at Ghana Forest Watch

For my final journalism project, I am reporting on the links between cocoa farming and deforestation. Ghana's main export is cocoa, but tourism is being affected by the loss of virgin rainforest that cocoa farming causes.

Today, I had an interview with Rebecca Teiko Dottey, who is the coordinator of Ghana Forest Watch. Forest Watch is an organization that advocates for sustainable forest use and farmers' rights. Rebecca explained that because most cocoa farmers are sharecroppers, it is more economically beneficial to harvest the timber. Government policy does not promote sustainable use or longterm development.

After the interview, Rebecca offered to take me to the Western Region. She was leading a group that would visit five cocoa farms that had created a community forest use program. Although my professor gave me permission, I needed to be in photojournalism class for a trip to Abury gardens. I will just have to visit a cocoa farm on my own.