A section of the dignitaries interacting with the Minister
The Minister of Environment Science, Technology and Innovations (MESTI), Prof. Frimpong Boateng, has said that the implementation of the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM) initiative has led to the reclamation and protection of eight forest reserves covering 42,844 hectares of land at various locations in the country.
According to him, the SLWN initiative, which is an ecosystems protection mechanism, is being implemented in 118 communities in the country to benefit over 14,000 land users.
The Minister said this at the 4th conference of Sahel and West Africa Programme (SAWAP), which was held under the theme, ‘Global Perspectives for the Future of SAWAP’ at the Kempiski Gold Coast City Hotel, Accra on Monday.
The SAWAP programme is an offshoot project of the Building Resilience through Innovation, Communications and Knowledge Services (BRICKS), a $1.1 billion six-year programme of World Bank in 12 Sahel and West African states.
The BRICKS project is implemented by three regional organizations-Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in Sahel (CILSS), Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), and West and Central Africa Office of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The SAWAP countries are Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Chad and Togo.
Prof. Frimpong Boateng was happy that Ghana has committed itself through various initiatives to tackling degradation of forest and land which has presently put the country on the spotlight for best practices in environmental conservation.
“It is very gratifying to note the BRICKS is creating the platform for scientists and policy makers to come together and deliberate on sustainable land and water resource management issues which have the potential of ensuring that we manage our environment to improve its quality and also facilitate the socio-economic development of many developing countries, especially in Africa,” he disclosed.
He stressed that Ghana has committed itself to addressing the issue of land degradation after realizing its importance to good land management, economic growth, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, food security and women’s empowerment.
Henry Kerali, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, said, “We are happy to see emerging success and potential for scale-up and replication from the Ghanaian initiative, thanks indeed to MESTI for bringing together the key sectors and agencies for implementing the project and ensuring connectivity of farmlands, protected areas and forest reserves.”
By Solomon Ofori