Adopt policies for sustainable land management - government urged

The government has been urged to adopt policies that would ensure judicious use of natural resources of the country in order to minimize the effects of the global climatic change on the country.

Prof Edwin A. Gyasi, National Programme Coordinator of the “Sustainable land management for mitigating land degradation, enhancing agriculture biodiversity and reducing poverty” (SLaM), said it was important to safeguard the use of non-renewable natural resources that are depleting.

Prof Gyasi was speaking at a seminar on dissemination of “Good/Best” land management practices identified under the SLaM project for the northern sector at Nyankpala on Tuesday.

The SLaM project is based on work in Ghana's major agro-ecological zones and funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and executed by the Government of Ghana and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and supported by a consortium of scientists led by the University of Ghana and the UDS.

The project, which started in 2005 to address sustainable land management to stem land degradation, has contributed to sustainable ecosystem-based integrated land management.

Participants at the seminar included farmers from the Tolon/Kumbungu District in the Northern Region and the Garu/Tempane District in the Upper East Region and students from the University for Development Studies (UDS).

The farmers were trained in compost making, weed management, nursery and plantation management, soil and water management, catchments protection and identification of contours and construction of contour bunds.

Prof Gyasi said land degradation threatened the global environment and humanity, especially through deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate warming.

He said in Ghana 70 per cent of the land experienced severe sheet and gully erosion which had become a major constraint to agricultural productivity, adding that biodiversity lost through deforestation and land degradation amounted to four per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Prof Gyasi called for moderation of our consumption habits especially among the rich in society some of whom own more that two cars, which he said were causing environmental pollution.