Biodiversity conservation needs planning

Accra, Oct. 25, GNA - Participants at a day's workshop on the 'Draft National Biodiversity Action Plan' on Wednesday agreed that a national land use plan or strategy was urgently needed if the country was to curb the continuous loss of its biodiversity by 2010. They said if a national land use plan were in place, land users would know what to do with the land at any point in time especially in relation to the conservation of biological resources.

Professor Alfred Oteng Yeboah, Chairman of the National Biodiversity Committee, who chaired the workshop, said since Ghana signed and ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity since 1992, she was obliged to develop a national strategy for the sustainable use of the country's biological resources.

'By the convention we are enjoined to halt the loss of biological resources by 2010 and we have to find ways of ensuring that we succeed in this venture,' he said.

Prof Oteng-Yebaoh said though there was still lack of information on the full coverage of biological resources in many areas such as in the marine and other aquatic ecosystems all the same about 2,974 indigenous plant species, 725 birds, 255 mammals and 221 species of amphibians and reptiles were recorded.

'There are about three species of frogs, one lizard and 23 species of butterflies have been reported to be endemic,' he said. He said it was important that the biological resources of the nation were readily available for future generations and to be in the right quantities for their use.

Prof Oteng-Yeboah said Ghana was able to conserve representative samples of her natural ecosystems in the form of forest reserves, national parks and other wildlife reserves, but agricultural extension, mining, timber extraction and other socio-economic factors had negatively impacted on the biological resources of the country He thus called for the involvement of district assemblies in the conservation efforts, since that was likely to achieve greater effects.