By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
Accra, July 27, GNA – The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) has engaged other Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on Ghana’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan ( NBSAP) which is due for submission to the UN in August 2024.
The engagement saw officials with in-depth knowledge in the climate change, environment and biodiversity issues brainstormed and came out with activities and indicators to achieve the 23 global biodiversity targets.
Global community has committed itself to conserving biodiversity and Ghana is a party to that convention where it is supposed to develop a national report that domesticate the global targets for implementation.
The 23 global targets have been classified into three thematic areas where target 1 to 8 focus on reducing threat to biodiversity, target 9 to 14 on meeting human needs whilst target 14 to 23 dwell on tools and resources in achieving all targets.
MESTI had earlier engaged the private sector and non-state actors before meeting with the MDAs, which are the implementing agencies of government policies.
The theme for biodiversity conservation this year is “Be part of the plan” and Ghana’s national targets focus on mainstreaming already existing activities and new ones that are in sync with our sustainability.
Dr Yaw Osei-Owusu, Member, National Biodiversity Steering Committee, said the NBSAP was a report that started with developing Ghana’s targets, creating of activities to be implemented and setting of indicators for measuring the success or otherwise of the target set.
He said the contributions from the engagement would feed into a national report and a technical team would refine Ghana’s targets before presentation to the UN on August 1.
Dr Osei-Owusu said Ghana had not done badly, in conserving its biodiversity even though it still had a lot of work to do, adding that with the kind of support the country was getting they could do more.
“NGOs are engaged in reforestation. The government is also committed to providing the support, both finance and technical for implementation of all the targets. I am really hopeful that we’ll achieve greater results than we’ve done in the past,” he said
GNA