By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Gbeogo (U/E), April 29, GNA – Pupils of some basic schools in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have proffered practical solutions through arts to curb environmental degradation and conserve natural resources.
Through posters and drawings, the pupils demonstrated how certain activities destroyed the environment and the effects on livelihoods, natural resources and the climate and how stakeholders could address the menace.
At an exhibition and awards ceremony held at Gbeogo, a suburb of Tongo, the pupils displayed deep knowledge and understanding of environmental issues such as tree felling, illegal mining, and bush burning as causes of environmental destruction.
They also demonstrated creativity that appealed to the conscience of the stakeholders, such as to planting and nurturing of trees, natural regeneration, avoidance of tree felling and bushfires to protect the environment and mitigate climate change challenges.
The event was organised by the Forum for Natural Regeneration (FONAR), an environmentally- focused organisation that advocates the adoption of the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) with funding support from the Awaken Trees Foundation of Austria.
It was on the theme: “Our Environment is Our Lives,” which brought together 15 Eco Clubs each with 20 members and their teachers from 15 basic schools in Talensi where the project was being implemented.
It was to train the school children to be agents of environmental protection.
Mr Sumaila Saaka, the Executive Director, FONAR, said the world was experiencing the reality of climate change crisis, posing risks to livelihoods of many communities, especially children.
He said the children, the country’s future leaders, must be made aware of environmental issues, discuss the repercussions among themselves, their teachers and community members, and be allowed to contribute to finding sustainable solutions to them.
The children were, therefore, expected to use the poster drawings, with the support of their teachers, to engage members of their communities and recommend measures to address local environmental problems.
“FONAR will continue to work with our partners such as the District Assembly and its decentralised departments as well as our traditional leaders and communities, to protect children’s lives by involving them in building community resilience to climate change and environmental stressors through ecosystem restoration,” Mr Saaka said.
FMNR’s approach is one of the cost effective landscape restoration techniques that has the ability to regreen the environment faster.
He urged the Government to integrate the FMNR strategy into the Green Ghana Project to restore degraded lands in northern Ghana.
Mr Joseph Zida, the Deputy Talensi District Director in charge of Human Resource, Ghana Education Service, lauded FONAR and its partners for inculcating in the children environmental protection issues, which was yielding results in the schools.
He said the survival of humans on earth was dependent on a variety of flora and fauna, of which trees formed an essential part, and encouraged communities to desist from activities that had detrimental effects on the environment.
Naba John Attiah, the Chief of Pwalugu-Balungu, said excessive bush burning was the biggest threat to regeneration efforts in the area and the situation had adversely affected food production and economic trees such as shea.
He, therefore, urged stakeholders to support to find sustainable solutions to the challenge.
GNA