Read at : Google Alert - desertification
http://www.thestatesmanonline.com/pages/news_detail.php?newsid=6255§ion=1
Ghana Environmental Management Project takes off -Three Northern Regions targeted
Government’s comprehensive policy to strengthen Ghanaian institutions and rural communities to enable them reverse land degradation and desertification trends in the three regions of Northern Ghana has taken off, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment has disclosed. The programme, Ghana Environmental Management Project, is also expected to adopt sustainable water and land management systems that will improve food security and reduce poverty. At the end of the five-year project period, which is being funded by the Canadian Government, it is expected that effective policies, institutions and practices that support improvements in land and water management in rural communities in the three northern regions would have been developed and are operational.
Mr Kofi Jumah stated at a GEMP sensitisation workshop organised in Tamale for policy makers and key stakeholders by the Environmental Protection Agency that the programme will “involve the local communities, community based organizations and all other stakeholders to develop practical and effective policies, programmes and activities and collaborate with relevant formal and informal local institutions like credit unions, co-operative societies, farmer groups, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Immigration Service, social groups and relevant MDAs etc. to adopt and improve on indigenous, local and new practices that support land and water management.”
According to him, it is necessary for the EPA and the Local Government Ministry to work together to strengthen and transform the existing District Environment Management Committees into statutory committees of District Assemblies.
This, he explained, will make them more effective so that they can work to raise awareness of desertification, its causes and effects on land use within the project operational area.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris noted that “the indiscriminate/unchecked exploitation of savannah resources to satisfy socio-economic needs have led to deforestation, destruction of wildlife habitats and natural resources depletion.”
A situation, he said, has been heightened by the ever increasing pressure of population growth in some parts of the savannah ecological zones in the three Northern Regions.
“In most of these areas unsustainable farming systems, coupled with short fallow periods, excessive harvesting and commercialization of fuel wood collected, high incidence of bushfires and overgrazing have contributed to the cumulative effect of land degradation and consequently desertification,” Alhaji Idris emphasised.
Land degradation has become an increasingly serious global problem especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, with major implications for the socio-economic growth.
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Many developing countries including Ghana are facing formidable challenges in their attempt to combat land degradation and for that matter desertification.
The insidious nature of the phenomenon is having a serious impact on human development and livelihoods of communities affected.
