By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Baapelig (U/E), June 6, GNA – Pupils in some basic schools in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have sensitised their respective communities on good environmental practices to protect the environment and mitigate challenges of climate change.
The pupils, through drawings and posters, educated their parents and major community stakeholders on how some human activities such as indiscriminate felling of trees, bush burning, and open defecation among others, could destroy the environment and the consequences on human lives and livelihoods.
The pupils, through demonstration fields, proposed the adoption and practice of natural regeneration as viable alternative solutions to curbing environmental destruction and reversing degraded forest and landscapes.
The school children carried out the demonstration at the Baapelig and Kulpeliga primary schools during Eco Club community outreach durbars to deepen community understanding on environmental issues and how stakeholders especially, communities could play major roles to protect the environment.
The engagement was facilitated by the Forum for Natural Regeneration (FONAR), an environmentally focused organisation, with funding support from the EKO, a United States based human rights and social justice organisation.
It was part of measures to scale up the approaches of the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), to fight climate change challenges and improve agriculture productivity for food and nutritional security.
Ms Helena Bamengazut, a class six pupil of Baapelig Primary School, through drawings and posters, explained that the environment had been destroyed through pollution of water bodies, bushfires, and tree felling, which had contributed significantly to the challenges of climate change.
She, therefore, urged the participants to desist from activities that destroyed the environment and cultivate the culture of environmental protection through the adoption of natural regeneration coupled with tree planting, to green the environment.
Master Lazarus Bazumyin, another pupil noted in his drawings and posters that trees and the environment provided food, shelter, water, and oxygen, which were critical to human existence, and it was critical that all efforts be geared towards protecting the environment.
Mr Hanson Saman, one of the community members, lauded the creativity and deep knowledge displayed by the pupils in proffering practical solutions to curbing environmental destruction and urged all stakeholders to support the initiative to make maximum impact.
Mr Augustine Kungazuri Tii, the Headtecher of the Baapelig Primary School, lauded FONAR and its partners for helping to instill good environmental practices in the pupils, noting that it would go a long way to influence their behaviour positively.
In a speech read on his behalf by Mr Christopher Pubeng, the Programmes Officer, Mr Sumaila Saaka, the Executive Director of FONAR, noted that children were the future and agents of change, hence, the move to deepen their understanding on the importance of trees and the environment for human survival.
He said the FONAR and its partners in collaboration with the Talensi District Directorate of Ghana Education Service launched the school FMNR eco club creative art competition earlier this year on the theme, “Our Environment is Our Lives.”
He said the project was being implemented in 15 basic schools in the district and was meant to help the pupils to express and reflect on environmental issues in their communities.
“FONAR would like to take this opportunity to appeal to our revered community Chiefs, Tindanas and elders to support the eco club schools get demonstration sites where they can practice FMNR,” he said.
GNA