By Alex Baah Boadi
Sefwi-Wiawso (WN/ R), June 7, GNA- Rainforest Alliance, a non-government organisation, has called for the proper use of data in the management and fight against land degradation in the country.
That, the organisation believed, was the surest way to attract investors and to tell the world the exact happenings within the forest landscape.
Ms Matilda Agyapong, Project Manager, Rainforest Alliance, said this at the climax of Data gap analysis and action plan forum to accelerate jurisdictional sourcing approaches in the Western North Region,
The Project is being funded by Worldwide Fund.
Ms Agyapong indicated that: “Data and information play a vital role in Deforestation and land degradation and must be given the needed attention.”
She explained that the Jurisdictional Data Project had an overarching goal of increasing the capacity in landscapes to collect data needed to participate in Jurisdictional Performance Assessment Approaches (JPAAs) specifically on landscape.
The project, according to her, was aimed at supporting the achievements of landscape sustainability goals and improving market access and financial sustainability of landscape initiatives, particularly those focused on reducing emissions from Deforestation and forest degradation.
“To achieve these goals, Rainforest Alliance, in collaboration with implementing partners, deliver targeted and tailored training and technical support in key commodity producing landscapes to help overcome hurdles and enable private sector procurement to act as a reward for addressing Deforestation and other sustainability challenges linked with commodity production,” she said.
The project manager further said the project was being implemented in two landscapes in Ghana under the Landscape and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) action, which is funded by the European Union with an overall objective of conserving biodiversity, improving livelihoods, increasing climate change resilience and reducing Emissions from land use changes in these landscapes.
She mentioned diverse interest among stakeholders and institutions, data gap among others as some of the challenges encountered during the implementation of project.
Ms Agyapong in that regard, appealed to Ghanaians to be serious about land degradation issues and report others who might destroy the environment to the appropriate authorities to serve as a deterrent to others.
GNA