The Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD), a non-profit organization, is advocating for the creation of designated livestock corridors in the Upper West Region.
The aim is to regulate the activities of herdsmen and prevent the entry of livestock from neighbouring countries without following the necessary protocols.
According to Mr Daniel Banuoku, the Deputy Executive Director for CIKOD-North, there are currently over 67 entry points for transhumance into the Upper West Region.
He noted that herders have found the West African Coastal Region to be a safe destination and market due to climate change and instability in their region.
Mr Banuoku made these comments during a workshop organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in partnership with Media Alliance to inform state and non-state actors about the ECOWAS protocols.
“We need to establish livestock or transhumance corridors. The corridors in our view are one way to regulate the entry because when we did the search there are over 67 entry points around the Upper West Region,” he said.
He expressed his frustration over the challenge of acquiring land in the Upper West Region to establish livestock corridors, citing land disputes as the main issue.
“The Upper West Region in particular remains one of the most notorious regions in the establishment of livestock corridors. To establish 195km corridor from Kupulima to Wa, it took us four years and we only managed to secure 40 kilometers.”
Mr. Banuoku stated that traditional authorities and landowners cannot facilitate the right development in their areas, as access to land remains a complicated commodity.
“So far us to be able to implement the transhumance protocol, we need to deal with the critical issues on the ground. The land tenure system has to be looked at,” he said.
The Coordinating Director for International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Perpetua Dufu, explained that the purpose of the workshop is to sensitize the stakeholders on the activities, programs and protocols of ECOWAS.
“We have a vision to transform ECOWAS from an ECOWAS of state to an ECOWAS of people,” she said.
She stated that the ECOWAS protocols allow people to move and live freely across borders in member countries.
“The protocols have given the way for people to move across borders freely and to have the right to establish themselves in member states. The challenges few years now since this has been in place is that after all these protocols have been agreed member states are to localized it in their own laws and to remove any barriers that exist within their legal system to make this a reality. The challenge has been that in many places some of the barriers still exist,” she added.