By Benjamin Akoto, GNA
Fiapre, (Bono), July 17, GNA – Miss Awudu Amatu Mugiess, the Bono Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has called for an integrated approach to tackle the nation’s growing interconnected environmental challenges.
She said that as interconnected environmental challenges, climate change impacts like land degradation, pollution, loss of biodiversity and depletion of natural resources could not be tackled effectively by isolated interventions.
“That means that we must move beyond fragmented interventions and embrace holistic approaches which combine science, policy, community participation and indigenous knowledge”, she suggested.
Ms Mugiess made the call when speaking at a day’s seminar on climate change modelling, organised by the Department of Environmental Management of the School of Natural Resources of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). With support from the Global Greengrants Fund (GGF) t
he seminar was organised to mark the 2026 World Environment Day, and on the theme: “Nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation”.
Ms Mugiess noted that the government’s present environmental priorities reflected a renewed emphasis on landscape restoration and afforestation.
That focuses on ensuring that trees planted are nurtured to maturity and contributed meaningfully to ecological restoration. Ms Mugiess said efforts to combat illegal minin
g were also being strengthened through improved monitoring systems and enforcement mechanisms.
She said that sustainable livelihood alternatives were also being explored for affected communities.
Ms Mugiess added that climate change adaptation strategies were being mainstreamed into national development planning, with particular attention to agriculture, water resource management, disaster risk reduction and urban resilience.
She said that waste management and pollution control were also receiving increased policy attention as the nation transitioned towards more sustainable consumption and production systems.
Ms Mugiess said the EPA continued to play a central role in advancing the country’s environmental governance framework.
The Authority’s mandate has evolved beyond regulatory enforcement to include environmental planning, compliance monitoring, pollution control, environmental impact assessment and public education.
In recent years, she said the EPA had intensified collaborations with various stakeholders to ensure that environmental protection became a shared responsibility rather than a fragmented effort.
Ms Mugless noted that despite the challenges, the nation had made notable progress in environmental governance and climate action.
She said national interventions aimed at forest restoration and afforestation continued to expand, including tree-planting initiatives that had mobilised millions of seedlings across the country.
“However, we are now increasingly aware that the success of such initiatives must be measured not only by the number of trees planted but also by their survival rate, ecological integration and long-term contribution to the restoration of degraded landscapes”, she indicated.
Ms Mugiess said that the shift in thinking reflected a more mature and science-based approach to environmental restoration.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/George-Ramsey Benamba
Reporter: Benjamin Akoto
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