Executive Summary

Effects of Imperialism: Ghana was first imperialized in 1482 by the Portuguese when they set up the first European settlement/colony. The Portuguese are said to be the “Imperial trend-setters” because the years to come Great Britain, The Netherlands, and Denmark to settle in Ghana. Fast forward to 1807, many of these countries did undergo from resistance from the natives, the tribal state of Asante, wanting to expand its rule from the interior part of Ghana, invaded the coastal parts of Ghana. During their stay, the imperialist countries utilized Ghana for their gold, timber, fish near the coast, and introduced the timber they collected as a new energy and fuel source. Ghana now has one of the best economies in Africa. Even though Ghana has advanced as a country, its ecosystems and environment are not progressive like the rest of the country. Ghana now has only 9.09% clean air in the country.

Problem: The biggest problem that Ghana is currently facing is the immense amount of deforestation being done. Not only is this obviously destroying many forest, but is also making it very difficult for the ecosystems and its inhabitants and creating a dangerous air quality issue. In a 15 year period from 1990-2005 Ghana cut down 91,073,000 cubic meters of wood or about the same volume as 36,429.2 olympic size swimming pools.Also Ghana sold about 137.9 million Euros or $150,242,050 just in luber in 2010. Also 60% of the reason for the lumber cut was to make room for cattle ranches. Also when Ghana was surveyed for risks, on a scale from 1 to 7 (7 being the worst), timber availability ranked as a 5.27, and the Tropical timber boycott ranked a 6.04.

Project: Our organization, Alternatives for wood, or AWF, plans to help with these issues by using multiple resources to build buildings and will install solar panels as a different energy source. This will not only help stop the deforestation, but will also help regrow the environment and help Ghana become a fully progressive country. By reducing the amount of trees cut down it will, over the years after our project, increase the amount of oxygen production and decrease their CO2 emissions. And finally it will return the forests of Ghana back to their once full and plentiful state they were back before lumber became a crutch for the economy of Ghana.