Wednesday, August 10, 2011

STAKEHOLDERS URGED TO PROTECT NATURAL ENVIRONMENT


The Project Officer of Grameen Ghana, Adam Abdul- Razak has appealed to stakeholders in the natural resources and environmental sector and community leaders to enact bye-laws to safeguard the environment from extinction.

Speaking at a workshop organized to build the capacity of community leader’s at Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District of the Northern Region of Ghana, Mr. Adam said the negative impact of human beings on the environment was too devastating and that only a long period of sustained behavioral change education on such negative effects could change the attitude of people towards environmental mismanagement.

The workshop, which was organized by Grameen Ghana in collaboration with ActionAid-Ghana, brought together stakeholders and community leaders from the Nanumba North and South Districts to discuss among others, the role of forest in sustainable ecosystems, effects in land degradation and contribution of vegetative cover to soil.

Mr. Adam, therefore, called for the adoption at community and district levels, policies and actions that would ensure sustainable environmentally compatible development.

The Nanumba North District Environmental Health Officer, David Bayel, noted that persistent bushfires, bad farming practices, indiscriminate fuel and wood harvesting and overgrazing among others, were contributing excessively towards land degradation and eroding of the natural resources.

Protection of the environment, he said, should be treated as an issue of national priority along with poverty alleviation and climate change, which has gained so much importance in recent times.

According to Mr. Bayel, human factors such as poverty, population growth, poor economic growth, poor living standards of farming communities and over-dependence of forest and woodlands hinders the realization of the full potential and benefits of dry land and forest.

Whilst appealing to the District Assemblies to include household toilet facilities in their building plans to ensure good sanitary practices, he also stressed the need for all to support and be conscious of the environment and protect it for the future generation.

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