By Regina Benneh
Kumasi, (Ashanti), June 11, GNA – Professor Mercy Afua Adutwumwaa Derkyi, the Director of Quality Assurance and Academic Planning Directorate of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) has called for collaborative efforts towards restoring the nation’s degraded ecosystem.
She emphasised the need to integrate politics, science, human dimensions and economic factors into the restoration approach. Prof Derkyi made the call at the Second Biennial Media forum on Natural Resources, Environment, Climate change, and Science held in Kumasi last week.
The forum was jointly organised by the Media Platform on Environment and Climate Change (MPEC), the Afro-Sino Center of international Relations ((ASCIR) and the Steminist Foundation Ghana on the theme “Ecosystem restoration: the politics, the science, the human and the Economy”.
The day’s forum was attended by senior journalists, editors and media practitioners drawn from Bono, Bono East, Ashanti, and Greater Accra.
Prof Derkyi expressed concern that the country now faced ecological degradation due to deforestation, illegal mining activities and unsustainable agricultural practices, saying the loss of ecosystem services impacted climate change and people’s well-being, hence the need for an enhanced restoration initiative.
She said strong political will was required in developing policies towards supporting the restoration of the ecosystem and calling for active involvement of local communities in decision-making processes.
Prof Derkyi said successive governments must also ensure that the existing ecosystems were not destroyed in the restoration processes and urged the need to intensify awareness creation about the eco-systems.
She said the people ought to understand the causes of ecosystem degradation and its consequences, saying context-specific restoration methods, combining scientific knowledge with traditional ecological knowledge, innovations in ecological science were required in the restoration processes.
Prof Derkyi said innovations like remote sensing and GIS technology were required to help monitor ecosystem health and guide, mentioning how humans value ecosystems and the effects of management decisions on people as human dimensions in ecosystem restoration.
She added the need for transdisciplinary teams to design and implement projects that integrated various scientific insights such as social sciences highlighting the economic benefits of ecosystem restoration, including job creation and stimulation of local economies.
Prof Derkyi emphasized the need for the nation to develop economic models that would fund ecosystem restoration for job creation and stimulating local economies.
She called for effective collaboration of stakeholders, including government agencies, academia, media, and local communities to facilitate inclusive partnerships that enhanced communication and collaboration of researchers and environmental journalists.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Benjamin Mensah