WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY MARKED IN N/R

Although desertification and climate change in recent times, have assumed serious global concern and triggered debates among world leaders and environmental experts on their alarming effects, many people in Ghana probably due to ignorance have still not realised the importance of afforestation or tree planting to counteract the problems.

Lack of knowledge on many relevant issues is indeed a cancerous disease that has infected the larger Ghanaian society, not only the illiterate but also the literate or elite group.

As a result of the ignorance, most of the developmental challenges confronting the nation cannot just be overcome within the shortest possible time; not even issues like desertification and climate change that now determines how long man can exist on planet earth. This is so because, many people have failed to understand that cutting down trees, engaging in bad farming practices, bush burning, negative mining practices, and among others are the reasons why crop yields have reduced over the years and still continue to decline, water bodies (rivers, streams, lagoons, etc drying up) long drought periods, perennial flooding, and among others.  These are just some of the effects of climate change emanating from bad environmental practices.

But as the world marks this year’s Environmental Day on the theme: “Many species, One Planet, One Future”, environmental scientists are trying to conscientize society to change from the primitive way of living and adapt to the use of environmental friendly methods like the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas that do not impact negatively on the natural habitat.  

At a brief ceremony in Duuyin in the Tamale Metropolis to observe the World Environment Day which was organized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, residents of the Northern Region who faced most of the serious problems of desertification and climate change effects, were urged to stop persistent felling of trees, bush burning, group hunting, bad farming practices, overgrazing, among others.

In fact, there is no gain saying that the over exploitation of Ghana’s natural resources (plants and animals) leaves much to be desired.

In recent times, the Northern Region is experiencing plant and animal loss at alarming rates. This phenomenon is leading to gradual deterioration of environmental quality, thereby affecting environmental sustainability and species diversity. Continuous loss in plant and animal species is leading to the loss of reduction in vegetation cover, loss of medicinal plants, loss of biodiversity, decrease in soil fertility, reduction in the quantities and quality of available water used for various purposes, low agricultural productivity, among others.

Other problems that manifest as a result of species diversity loss include increasing and fluctuating ambient temperatures, loss of fodder or pasture, increase in heat and other related diseases (Cerebro Spinal Meningitis) and loss of agricultural lands.

According to the Northern Regional Director of the EPA, Abu Iddrisu, 16 million hectares of forest are depleted each year in Africa. Adding that, in Ghana and particularly the three Northern Regions, 22,000 hectares of tree species are lost annually.

He further indicated that, between 1938 and 1981, it is estimated that the area of closed forest in Ghana had reduced by 64% that is from 472,000km2 to 17,200km2 and open woodland declined by 37% from 111,800km2 respectively.

In pursuance of the mandate and responsibilities of the EPA, Mr. Abu said the agency was collaborating with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to supply 5,000 seedlings of cassia, neem and albizia to be planted and nurtured at various communities within the Metropolitan area.

The EPA was also collaborating with District Assemblies in the region to implement a five (5) year Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP) in the Northern Region, he added.    

For his part, San Nasamu Asabigi, Deputy Northern Regional Minster urged residents of the Northern Region to serve as ambassadors of good environmental practices so as to help revert desertification.

He lamented that generations yet unborn will need to see some of the forest reserves and animals hence the need to consider environmental management as a collective responsibility.

By Joseph Ziem

Environmental Journalist

Ziemjoseph@yahoo.com

BAD POLITICAL LEADERSHIP DEPRIVING MINING COMMUNITIES

BACKGROUND

I fear to be part of a generation that once sat down aloof and unconcerned, and watched aliens or crooks take away virtually everything that ever belonged to them. This is because I will feel unimportant to tell the next generation refreshing fairy-tales about Ghana’s natural resources when in actual fact, there is nothing worthwhile to point at as an achievement that we as a nation gained through our abundance natural resources. This and many other reasons explain why I write authoritatively on wrongful exploitation of our natural resources by aliens or crooks (mining companies) which brings about bad environmental problems which they care less about. As a matter of fact, I don’t even write to please anybody or group of people, but to effect positive change because that is my utmost objective as a writer and journalist.

Our political leaders are supposed to be ashamed of themselves for failing to protect our environment because any severe damage to the natural habitat invariably affect the lives of humans often referred to as first class animals. But wait a minute! Or have they been “bought” or “corrupted” by these crook multinationals? In fact, it did not come to me as a surprise when one politician who seems to know everything and even calls himself a rights activist nicknamed the President of the republic “Professor Do Little”. If the nation’s current collection of political leaders who are the managers of our natural resources do not lead by (EXAMPLE) in order to avoid ever being labeled as a bunch of mediocre or crooks, then they should walk their talk and spare us with the frequent rhetorics. Let’s ask ourselves, why are the memories of our First President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah still fresh in the minds of Ghanaians, Africans and even the Western World? It is simply because of his great achievements and loyalty to the people of Ghana and the Continent of Africa. Indeed there is a saying that “It is only a Stupid Apprentice who does not want to aspire to become a master”. I can thus confidently state that almost all our political heads are victims or clear examples of the “stupid apprentice”. They only preach virtue and practice vices. In fact, there is nothing so important than being hailed and exalted as a saint many years after your death and that’s what Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, our first President is enjoying now.

But it saddens my heart most of the time when I see our politicians or “poli-trick-tians” as the Rastafarians will call them if only they are tricking us, doing very little or nothing at all to make things better for the majority of Ghanaians. Constantly, they demand for what will further make their stomachs grow bigger (ex-gratia or increment in salaries/allowances) and their families to feel comfortable (better education, high-quality balanced meals, and other goodies one can think of) whiles the downtrodden becomes more susceptible to diseases, hunger and poverty and anything above worst. Now non-Ghanaians who previously wished Ghana was their country of birth, will soon begin to think otherwise, not because Dr. Nkrumah is no longer regarded as a hero or a legend, but because of the bad political leadership that we have had as a nation in the last two or three decades.                 

I am not deviating from the reason for which I am writing this article but just an attempt to tell you the reader, what our leaders are failing to do in all these years with regards to proper management of our natural resources. The current President of the Republic of Ghana cannot continue to pretend as if all is well in the various mining communities in the country when indeed community members are seriously crying over the seizure and destruction of their farmlands, forest reserves, cemeteries, sacred groves, pollution of water bodies through cyanide spillage, air pollution through huge blast of rocks, acid drainage, pollution of underground water, endangering the lives of animal species, etc.

If the legendary former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is the second most respected African personality in contemporary times after Dr. Nkrumah and his immediate successor Dr. Thabo Mbeki, had stuck in their presidential seats in their offices, obviously the mining city of Johannesburg as well as other towns in South Africa wouldn’t have been beautiful as they are now and many years to come. But because they regularly moved out of their offices to the mining areas just to ensure that the best practices are/were adhered to, and also insisted that a country that emerged from colonial struggle and apatite, and was trying to rebuild itself got a fair share of the gold and other natural resources due them, South Africa has become the economic power house of Africa.

Those who came after these two leaders have maintained the standard and even trying to improve upon what they had been bequeathed with and that is what the downtrodden and concerned Ghanaians like me is expecting our politicians to be doing. Build upon the enormous achievements of Dr. Nkrumah and stop destroying the solid foundations that he laid for us to start-off and develop as a nation with the large deposits of gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese, clinker, salt, oil, gas, acreages of timber plantations and forest reserves, etc. The President as well as other power brokers should not sit down aloof and unconcerned and watch these mining companies like Newmont, Azumah,  Anglogold Ashanti, etc take away everything that belong to Ghanaians.

THE TOOTHLESS MINING LAW

Frankly speaking, Ghana’s mining law is too weak and instead of our politicians strengthening such laws, they are in one way or the other interested in what they will get from these companies. Is it true that one of the mining giants in the country gave our Minister of Mines Alhaji Collins Dauda 20,000 dollars during the funeral ceremony of his late mother? Well it is a rumour, but in every rumour there is some great amount of TRUTH. At least, they (our politicians) should think of the generation they are leading and those yet unborn.

About 30 years ago (1980’s) when Ghana decided to yield to the dictates of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the so called Economic Recovery Programme, one of the conditions was for Ghana to open up its mining sector to foreign investors like Newmont, Anglogold, just to mention a few, to come and take everything away like they are doing now. The World Bank influenced the drafting of the PNDC Law 153 at the time and that law only served the interest of mining companies to the disadvantage of our country. Thank God Civil Society groups including the media spoke against it and the law was reviewed. But all the same, the reviewed law which then became the Mineral and Mining Act (ACT 703) could not achieve much result for Ghana. This is because, while Civil Society Organisations were struggling for a law that would be fair to Ghanaians and the mining communities, the multinationals materialistically advocated for a law that would enable them to continue to take the bigger part of the booty.

The law is such that it gives so many incentives to the mining companies and as a result, they do not pay tax or import duties on anything they bring into the country. Customs Officers cannot even have access to the amount of gold at the disposal of these companies and tax them. And I ask myself, can they do this in South Africa where some of them are operating or even in their parent countries? Obviously NO! The most annoying aspect of it is that, they even lodge all the millions of dollars into foreign accounts instead of keeping them in Ghana. Besides, the law says they should pay royalties of only 3% to 6% and so they choose to pay 3%. Can anybody blame them? If you have a company like Newmont Ghana which has been exempted from paying Value Added Tax and can only pay royalties of 3%, why wouldn’t they hesitate to spill chemicals into water bodies? After all they are rich and can pay any amount of fine leveled against them. Could you just imagine that Newmont and the other big companies were crying foul when the Minister of Finance Dr. Kwabena Duffour some few months ago, said he was going to increase the State’s minimum royalties to 6% from the current 3%?             

PERILOUS CONDITIONS CREATED BY MINING COMPANIES

Let me share some of the perilous problems the mining companies are creating for Ghana and her beloved citizens. For instance, Prestea Goldmines alone has abandoned 45 pits and people in communities at Prestea fall into these “pit-traps” and that is the end of them. Some of these pits are 500 metres deep and about 2.5 to 7 kilometres long, yet the companies call them small pits. They don’t care and our politicians (President and his ministers) only sit in the comfort of their cruising offices but do not care about the trauma facing the local people. The pits will be there forever because they can never be reclaimed and animals and human beings will continue to fall inside and they will affect wildlife and serve as breeding ground for mosquitoes and reptiles.

In mining communities such as Teberebie and Kenyasi in the Western and Bono Ahafo Regions respectively, Anglogold Ashanti Limited and Newmont Ghana Gold Limited have made live unbearable for community members. They have wanton disregard for human rights. At Teberebie, Anglogold Ashanti has been dumping its waste rocks on farms belonging to poor community members on the basis of the bogus Mineral and Mining Act which has no clear benchmarks in terms of compensation for victims. People like Mr. Anthony Badu are being shot when they attempt to navigate through other areas to their farms because of the dumped waste rocks blocking the road leading to their farms. Mr. Badu is now crippled and has lost his livelihood as a result, according to the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM). At Kenyasi, a major cocoa growing area, Newmont is mining and as a result is destroying cocoa trees and paying just pittance to the farmers. This negative activity has caused the community so much starvation and food price hikes. It is believed that a cocoa tree can yield half a bag of cocoa a year. Besides, cocoa can be planted when old ones die but gold is not like that because it is not a renewable natural resource. When it finishes, you leave the area and go somewhere else to explore again. Newmont pays less than GH¢7.00 for a Cocoa tree that can yield about half a bag of Cocoa beans per year and can last for about 40 years. If Ghana were having good political leadership, none of these will happen.

A research report on the Determination of Heavy Metals in Water Bodies in Tarkwa and Obuasi Mining Areas has revealed that, the degradation of the land, pollution of water bodies as well as the air in these mining communities posed serious health hazards to the people, who have been found to be experiencing various illnesses such as skin and chest diseases including Tuberculoses. Diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, typhoid fever, dizziness and persistent headaches were found to be prevalent in the areas of the study.

The research also found out that most of the rivers in the mining areas of Obuasi and Tarkwa were polluted with elevated levels of hazardous chemicals such as arsenic, manganese, cadmium, iron, copper, mercury, zinc and lead which were far above the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ghana Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) permissible levels. For instance, the River Nyam in Obuasi, was found to have arsenic concentration of 13.56 milligrams per litre (mg/L) as against 0.01 mg/L required by the WHO and 1.0 mg/L as required by the EPA.

It revealed that the River Asuakoo had 22.72 mg/L as against 0.4mg/L manganese concentration required under WHO permissible guideline value, adding that similar high levels of these chemicals were found in all the rivers and streams tested in the study areas.

The report further stated that manganese, lead and mercury, which were found in the water bodies, were neuro-toxic metals that could affect the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of children if they existed in high levels in their drinking water. So one will ask, what is all this noise about educating young ones because they are the future of this country? Aren’t our politicians using us as sacrificial lambs?

In all, 400 water samples made up of 200 from Obuasi and 200 from Tarkwa areas were collected between May and September 2008, and analyzed separately for toxic chemicals including arsenic, manganese, cadmium, iron, copper, mercury, zinc and lead.

Wexford Ghana Limited at Akyempim in the Western Region, a subsidiary of Bogoso Gold Limited and owned by Golden Star Resources spilled cyanide into River Kubekro on Tuesday 11th January 2005. That was the second time in less than three months that companies owned by Golden Star Resources spilled chemicals into the river that is serving several thousands of people from more than three communities. For example, Bogoso Gold Limited did not provide adequate medical care to the community people who mistakenly drank the water and ate poisoned fishes in a cyanide spillage of October 2004. They got away with such a serious crime committed and the EPA had to take the responsibility for the medical care of people affected by the cyanide spillage. Many companies in Ghana like AngloGold Ashanti, Newmont, Abosso Goldfields Limited, Bogoso Gold Limited etc have committed heinous crimes against poor, innocent rural people and their chiefs in the name of development. Newmont will pay as much as 100 million dollars or more aside compensations if it discharges cyanide anyhow in the USA. But if you remember, not too long ago this company was asked to pay just a small amount of 7 million dollars when it deliberately discharged that dangerous chemical into the Subri River. Folks, the list of problems caused by mining companies are endless. We can’t fight these companies if our politicians continue to allow themselves to be “bought” or “corrupted” and worst of it all, refuse to amend the mining law.

WHY THE MAD RUSH BY MINING COMPANIES TO GHANA?

It is said that Ghana has some of the biggest mining reserves in the world with production of the “yellow rock” rising over 10 percent a year. No wonder there is serious jostling or scramble for concessions with over 200 mining companies reported to be looking for gold in the country. And it’s all so because, the so called reviewed mining law has given generous incentives and exemptions to mining companies to the detriment of Ghanaians.

A research conducted by the United Nations trade agency UNCTAD, has revealed that Ghana benefits very little from mining and exportation of gold which accounts for only 5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The World Bank which forced Ghana to allow the mining companies to invade Ghana by guiding it to draft weak laws that will enable them take away everything and create problems for Ghanaians, now says the mining sector’s true benefits to Ghana are unclear, after reviewing the mining companies low tax deals and their high import costs.

But renowned international private audit firm, PriceWaterHouseCoopers is claiming in a research report that mining companies rather contribute significantly to the public finances of their host countries.

The study it conducted involved 22 companies in the global mining industry and the full contributions they made to public finances in 2008.  

In the report, the mining companies reported a turnover of 62.9 billion dollars of which wages and salaries paid to employees was $ 6 billion dollars whilst total contribution to governments was over $10 billion dollars. 

With this basis, a company like Newmont says mining companies have been vindicated over criticisms that their contributions are woefully disproportional to their revenues.

PriceWaterHouseCoopers certainly cannot be telling the truth and its claims can never convince the poor Ghanaian farmer who is demonstrating everyday because his or her farm has been taken over by irresponsible and insensitive mining company of a sort (excuse my language). There are audit firms in Ghana owned by genuine Ghanaians. If the mining companies (foreign) want, they should allow those companies to audit their accounts instead of trying to make poor farmers believe they are indeed helping to build Ghana.

CONCLUSION:

It is obvious that the loud noise our politicians are making in the form of advocacy towards addressing the problems of global warming and climate change conditions in Ghana is just pure lip service and deceit. The mining companies are cutting down trees which bring rainfall, destroying the fertile soils for agricultural purposes, maiming and murdering people because they are demanding for their rights, polluting water bodies and the air through cyanide spillage and rock blasts, endangering the lives of animal species, causing desertification, etc. The mining law is weak and it is the fault of our politicians, and our politicians are bad, simply because they are greedy. Ghana is far from achieving the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations and expected to be achieved by 2015. This is because, if mining companies are pulling down the homes of humans, cemeteries, sacred grooves or farms, certainly they will not hesitate to pull down schools, hospitals, mortuaries, etc. There are set goals for Ghana to achieve under education, health and among other areas. But as Ghana tries to combat malaria, mining companies are creating pits which serve as breeding ground for mosquitoes to cause malaria that will lead to the death of children, mothers and expectant ones. Children will drop out of school because of nonexistent of schools or due to the inability of parents to pay school fees since their farms are being taken away without any compensation. Mothers and children will die of strange illnesses after drinking unsuspecting polluted water. Rural folks will die of hunger and poverty will force them to steal. If an adult pretends not to see the wrongdoings of an insolent child then when they are talking about bad people that adult is certainly among.     

By Joseph Ziem

Environmental Journalist

Ziemjoseph@yahoo.com

Desert March Threatens To Swallow Northern Ghana

Parts of Northern Ghana turns bear because of gravel mining

By: Francis Npong, Tamale The kind of ecological calamity that sent Ethiopia and Sunden’s Darfur from relative food sovereignty to food scarcity may pretty soonfall on Ghana’s lot, as Sahara Desert has continued to turn the northern parts of Ghana into wasteland and marches violently and unstoppably southwards.

According to environmental experts, about 35% of the total land mass of the country has already been swallowed by the advancing desert and the three northern regions, Upper East, West and Northern, which together constitute about 40% of the total land mass of the country are the worst affected area.

It is estimated that the 8.2 million hectares of the closed forest of the country have been depleted leaving a current level estimated at 1.9 to 2.0 million hectares.
This experience has also taken a heavy toll on the economy. For instance, in 1998, the total estimated annual loss due to environmental degradation amounted to GH¢41.7 thousand, representing 4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
The three northern regions which fall under the savannah zone cover 55% of the country’s land mass in 1972 and had been expanded to 58.1% by 2000. Documents at the forestry departments stated that the forest cover of northern zone constituted about 41,600km in 1952, which represent about 46% of the total land area of the three regions, but the unregulated exploitation of these resources to meet the economic needs of the growing population of the people and livestock have reduced the forest cover of the land to semi-desert and wasteland.
Though desertification was arguably the first environmental issue to be recognized as taking place on global scale Africans countries have placed their focuses on physical infrastructure development to the detriment of environment which is now catching up with them. Land degradation, through sand wining, tree felling, bush burning and construction has turned the vegetation cover in Northern Ghana into waste and semi-desert land aggravating poverty, hunger and starvation, diseases, and youth migration, armed robbery among other social vices.
The UN conference on desertification in 1977 in Nairobi and later in 1994, the UN convention to combat desertification was opened for ratification by countries in which Ghana in 1996, December 27, ratified the convention but had failed in implementation of environmental laws.
Several factors were responsible for the desertification and deforestation in northern Ghana. The regions carry about 80% of the nation’s livestock,74.4%, Northern region 43.4% and Upper East 36.5%. an area of with a low rainfall between 645mm and 1250mm per annum and a long dry period of six to seven months and without irrigated grazing lands the consequence of this high livestock population has put pressure on the limited land resources, which sometimes generated conflicts between the owners of the livestock and farmer lands.
The rampant and uncontrollable bush burning for the purpose of either farming or hunting has been a constant culture of the people in these parts of the country and this had destroyed limited organic matter suitable for crop production hence food scarcity, hunger and starvation and increased poverty level.
A sizeable number of trees are felt every day for the purposes of charcoal burning or firewood and construction works have also aided the speedy advance of desertification and deforestation in the north.
The effects of desert encroachment in the Northern Ghana are alarming. Changes of rainfall patterns and climate in recent times have devastated the lands leaving several kilometres of scorched farmlands, leaner livestock, dried dams, and rivers impoverishing the population.
Already, poverty, hunger, diseases and unemployment have begun to force hundreds of the youth from Upper East, West and Northern regions to urban centers as a result of the loss of agricultural farm lands to desert encroachment, turning the marginal area of the regions into wastelands.
It for this reasons that experts at a four-day environmental workshop organised by the Rural Media Network (RUMNET) under KASA project, an environmental mechanism put in place by development partners including CARE International, The Netherlands Development Agency (SNV), and Inter-Church Co-operation for Development (ICCO) called for urgent measures to curb environmental degradation.
The programme which seeks to increase civil society involvement in attaining Natural Resources and Environmental Governance (NRE) was to enhance the capacity of civil society organisations to carry out effective advocacy on the conservation of natural resources. The participants were selected from civil society and media organisations from the Upper East, West and Northern.
The Northern Regional Director of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an interview Mr. Iddrisu Abu lamented that the rate at which the desert was moving into the country. He said the desert keeps advancing southwards from the boundaries at the speed of 0.8 kilometres per annum. The situation he said has assumed such a magnitude that the minimum vegetation cover in some communities in Upper East region has already fallen below 5% as against the total ecological cover to support life. He desert could be felt at Garu, Zongoiri, Zebila, Paga, Nangodi and Tungu in the Upper East region.

EPA Trains Communities On Waste Management

By: Francis Npong A two-day capacity building workshop on water and sanitation management organised for members of the district assemblies in the northern region has ended in Tamale with a call on the people to be mindful of activities that posed serious threat to environment.
Speaking in an interview with the Enquirer after the workshop the Northern Regional Director of EPA Mr. Abu Iddrisu pointed out that environmental degradation and waste management were alarming and need attention from both the government non governmental organisations, institutions and individuals to help deal with it.
Mr. Abu said waste management was becoming a canker in Ghana and that if attention is not paid to it proper management it would plague the nation into serious health crisis.
He stressed that the environmental related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, malaria among other diseases would spring up which would affect national development hence the need to trained people to be able to management water, sanitation and environment.
The workshop he explained is part of efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to equip personnel from the district assemblies with requisite environmental and sanitation management knowledge to help tackle the menace of waste, and environmental degradation among other things. The workshop which was organised under the Northern Region Small Towns Water and Sanitation (NORST) project brought personnel from Yendi, Nanumba North, and Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo among other districts who discussed various environmental related hazards that pose a challenge to water and sanitation at the district levels.
These issues include bush burning, deforestation, surface mining, over grazing, poor sanitation and waste handling, poor agronomic practices and abuse or misuses of agro chemicals among other things. The NORST project is a seven-year development project and is funded by the Canadian Government through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) at the cost of about $29.6 million. The project is aimed to increased access to sustainable clean drinking water and sanitation services to approximately 125, 000 beneficiaries in 30 selected small towns in 13 districts in the northern region.
Mr. Iddrisu explained that the participants were also trained to draft environmental management plans to help address issues of wastewater and solid waste management, land conservation and the protection of forestry. The participants were also sensitised the need to discourage practices that are environmental unfriendly such as cutting down trees for charcoal burning and misused of water bodies among other things. He said when waste materials were not properly managed could lead to air, environmental and water pollutions that would affect people’s health. The Deputy Northern Regional Minister Mr. San Nasamu Asabigi indicated that water was life and need to be properly managed.
He therefore urged EPA to collaborate with other stakeholders to ensure that water; waste management and sanitation issues were properly understood by community members

Northern Regional Environmental Committee Monitors GEMP

By; Francis Npong, Gambaga, N/R


The Ghana Environmental Management Proramme (GEMP) initiated by the Ghana Government to check desertification and drought is making inroads in the northern region. The Northern Regional Environmental Management Committee, indicated this when they toured the project sites to solicit first hand information on the project implementation at the community level.
The committee which is under the auspices of the Ghana Environmental management programmes (GEMP) has responsibilities among other things to promote continuous and detailed environmental education programmes with emphasizes on drought and desertification.
Speaking to the Enquirer in an interview, the Northern Regional Director of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mr. Abu Iddrisu explained that the region was making progress in the implementation of GEMP.
He explained that District and community environmental management committees had been constituted across the region as part of efforts to speed up the implementation GEMP to reverse the advancing desertification and its associated problem of drought in the region.
The Director said the committee initiated monitoring and evaluation to ensure that tree felling, sand mining, environmental and water pollution is ceased while at the same time promoting acceptable environmental practices through trainings, workshops, radio discussions to create awareness on good environmental practices among other things.
GEMP he explained is the Ghana government programme initiated to minimize the trend of desertification, deforestation and drought and is being funded by the Canadian Government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to fight desertification and drought to minimize it impact on livelihoods of small farmers in the northern sector. The programme which is a seven year action programme implemented by EPA cost about 7.2 million dollars.
The members also raised issues of Fulani herdsmen whose activities they observed posed serious threat to the success of GEMP and appealed to the government to seek the review of ECOWAS protocol on immigrants particularly the Fulani herdsmen in Ghana to help the country deal with it.
The committee educated community members on the existing environmental laws, its implication and the need to avoid bush burning, tree felling, and adaptation of good agronomic practices among other things.
Mr. Abu said the committee visited all the district and community environmental management committees, inspected established nurseries points and also educated members of various committees on the Ghana environmental management programme.
Each nursery site which strategically located near the project sites is expected to produce about 50,000 seedlings for the committees to plant by next year.
He said nursery attendants and volunteers have also been given training to manage the nurseries and to help create awareness on environmental issues at their respective communities.
Mr. Iddrisu said plans are advanced to reduce or stop indiscriminate bush burning, tree felling in the region for the successful implementation of GEMP.