
Augustina, 13 Dekoto Junction, Ghana
Heavy logging damaged the cocoa trees and corn crops that Augustina’s family farms. Sixty percent of the Ghanaians depend on forest resources like cocoa trees for their livelihoods, yet as of 1990, Ghana had lost 80 percent of its forests to the timber industry. Finally, Dekoto Junction’s first female chief - - ‘Madame Koko” - - put an end to the destructive logging practice in their village.