The often-marginalised communities who live in the vicinity of Ghana's forests have often had little or no say in how they were run. What's more, until fairly recently, locals would watch as vast profits from razing the tropical forests flowed out of their areas without a trace. No longer.

Dakar -About 1.6 million children are estimated to work in cocoa production in Ivory Coast and Ghana, some for their parents and some trafficked from other countries

Oxford, England -Rice that is ready to cook and rice grains grown as seed for the next crop look remarkably similar. That can tempt the unscrupulous, who pocket big profits by packaging table rice for sale as seed, according to counterfeiting experts.

Dakar -The West African country on Thursday became the second in the region after Senegal to launch a plan to help its capital city, Accra, grow safely as part of the 100 Resilient Cities global network

The first person in Britain to be convicted of female genital mutilation was sentenced to 11 years on Friday for cutting her three-year-old daughter.

Accra -In a junk-strewn lot on the outskirts of Ghana's capital, weary-looking street vendors gathered to hear their leader Vida Tangwam passionately protest their impending eviction.

Nkwantanum, Ghana -Trees grow naturally on many cocoa farms, providing shade for the delicate crop. But they belong to the state, not the farmers

Nyame Nnae, Ghana -Since Emmanuel Agyekum took over a decade ago as chief of Nyame Nnae, a poor cocoa farming village in western Ghana, people's incomes have fallen and his worries have increased.

Accra -As agriculture expands and grazing for cattle becomes scarcer, enmity between farmers and herders has intensified

Successful farming is a question of amassing and applying knowledge, adapting your approach to the ecological systems that confront you, and persevering in the face of new obstacles.

London -When Angela was born without lower legs, her father believed she was an evil spirit and should be taken to a "concoction man" - a traditional herbalist who would kill the baby and bury her.

London -"These girls need to cross the river to get to their school"

London -"We do not want to remain the beggars of the world"

London -Countless boys in West Africa enrol in football academies to establish a career at one of Europe's top teams, yet many of them are duped by unscrupulous men posing as agents

Dakar -Reports of child labour on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast emerged in the late 1990s

Dakar -\"It\'s hard for young female African entrepreneurs to feel like they fit in, if they can\'t see any role models out there\"

Nairobi -In a short film now making the rounds on the Internet, a journalist for Dutch television visits cocoa plantations in Cote d'Ivoire, bringing chocolate bars to local cocoa farmers who in spite of their livelihoods have never tasted chocolate before.