By Charles Tawiah
Nkawie (Ash) March 24, GNA – Mr Emmanuel Opoku, Manager, Emerging Technologies and Zonal Coordination of the Forestry Commission, has stressed the need for the effective use of technology in the national afforestation initiatives.
He mentioned Personified Tree Planting System (PTPS), Green Community’s Science Application (GCSA), Green Technology Capacity Building Model (GCBM) and Block-chain Technology for natural Resources Management (BTNRM), as some of the technologies, which could be employed to ensure successful reforestation system in Ghana.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Nkawie, he pointed out that, Block-chain, for example, could be used to track agroforestry products such as shade growing cashew, cocoa and others, to ensure they were produced sustainably.
Mr Opoku, who is also the Director of Global Alliance for Technologies in Nature Conservation (GAfTiNC), an environmental management entity further explained that, a database designed to track the entire life-cycle of a tree from the delicate beginnings in the nursery to its robust maturity, would encourage tree planting by individuals, institutions and groups.
This, he said could tag their details with codes to the trees they plant, thereby, foster a sense of engagement and responsibility for environmental conservation and have insights into growth patterns, environmental conditions and potential challenges of their trees.
Mr Opoku, pointed out that, engaging community members in scientific research and data collection helped individuals, even those without formal scientific trainings to collect, analyse and interpret data meaningfully to enhance the scale and scope of research that fostered public awareness and engagement in scientific and environmental issues through the related appropriate tools and platforms.
He emphasised that it could enhance biodiversity monitoring, bird population tracking, mapping, land-use changes, as well as air and water quality monitoring.
He noted that local communities, conservation practitioners, technology experts and policy makers with knowledge and tools needed to bridge the gap between inadequacy of experts in nature conservation, handling the challenges facing the earth and the creation of a mastermind platform for brainstorming and coming out with solutions to environmental challenges.
Mr Opoku, mentioned the enhancement of transparency, traceability and sustainability as useful tools to revolutionalise forest and food systems in the country.
He pledged to support the government’s reforestation initiative with the expertise, personnel and resources of his private entity in tree planting, public sensitisation and other activities as a contribution towards its success.
GNA
KOM/CAA