PROJECT TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS (PAGE 35, MIRROR, FEB 13, 2010)

From Tim Dzamboe, Ho
The Forestry Commission, in collaboration with the World Bank, is to embark on an environmental project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from deforestation and the degradation of natural resources.
Under the project, Ghana will access funds from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank to fund recommended programmes to ensure that carbon emissions fall below 20 per cent in accordance with international protocols on climate change.
The Chief Executive Officer of Hands Across the Oceans Foundation (HATOF), an environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mr Samuel C. Dotse, said this at a national consultation workshop with landowners, traditional rulers and opinion leaders in Ho.
The workshop, funded by the Forestry Commission, was aimed at educating participants on the dynamics of environmental issues pertaining to climate change and the need to sensitise society to the new project, REDD+, for it to succeed in the country.
Mr Dotse said deforestation and desertification had become international issues and that it was the concern at all international conferences on climate change and sustainable development to reverse the trend.
He said the World Bank had formulated a blueprint for the protection and replanting of lost forests, adding that challenges in connection with the loss of livelihoods would be duly rewarded.
He said opportunities for implementing REDD+ in Ghana were addressing climate change, rural poverty, payment for environmental services, conserving biodiversity, good governance, sustaining vital ecosystem services, respect for local people’s rights and restoring lost forest cover.
The Volta Regional Manager of the Forestry Service, Mr Winfred Bimah, said more than 100,000 hectares of land had been acquired in the Abutia, Adaklu and Ziope areas in readiness for the REDD+ project.
The Paramount Chief of the Ziavi Traditional Area, Togbe Kwaku Ayim IV, attributed rapid environmental degradation to the fast technology in industrialised countries which, among others, contributed to the invention of the chainsaw machine that had been used to deplete the forests.