NGO launches programme to protect Ecosystem

Saviefe (VR), April 14, GNA - The Development Institute (DI), a non-governmental organisation, has launched the Shared Resources Joint Solution (SRJS) programme in the Ho West District with the aim of, securing ecosystem, providing water, food security and climate resilience for improved livelihoods.

The four-year project from 2016 to 2020 is being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Union for the Conservation of Nature in the Netherlands and World Wildlife Fund, Netherlands with the first phase focused on advocacy, lobbying and capacity building of stakeholders.

Mr Jonathan Gokah, Programmes Director, DI, said the project would be implemented in 16 countries including Ghana.

He said the main goal of the Ghana project, which cut across the Mole landscape in the Northern Region and the Weto landscape in the Volta Region, would ensure integrated landscape governance that supports food security, water availability and other livelihoods in the Volta Basin.

Mr Gokah said the programme was designed to mitigate factors such deforestation, change in water quality and climate change issues that degrade the ecosystem.

He said his outfit hoped to advocate for the passage of the wildlife bill, build the capacity of Civil Service Organisations, and advocate a more resilient approaches and strategies towards climate change by the year 2020.

Mr Constantine Agbo, Board Chairperson of Community Resource Management Area (CREMA), bemoaned how the Weto Range, which was home to exotic flora and fauna, water bodies and caves, was gradually being destroyed through human activities.

He said uncontrolled use of agro-chemicals; logging and expansion of farmlands were threats to the range.

Dr Archibald Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, who lauded the initiative called on all stakeholders to view the protection of the ecosystem as a shared responsibility for all and contribute their quota 'towards making the world a better place'.

Togbe Nyakpeme IX, Dufia of Saviefe Traditional Council, pledged his support towards protecting the environment and called on his people to do same.

He also appealed to the Regional Minister to provide them with a multi-purpose dam and farm machinery for the cultivation of their crops throughout the year.

The Weto Range comprises of variety of landscapes mainly mountainous with a few isolated lowlands, which is 850km long with a total area of 343,549 hectares.

GNA