Ghana must reconnect the tenets of biodiversity security

Daryl Bosu, the Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana on Tuesday said Ghana has not done enough to protect its biodiversity in the last ten years leading to a significant loss of biocultural assets.

Mr Bosu, speaking in a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency said the country by nature was endowed with rich and unique biodiversity resources, but a lot of these have already or on the brink of local extinction, through overexploitation.

“…Mole National Park was home to healthy populations of lions, our Ramsair sites was habitat to several migratory birds, the forests that are habitat for several species have declined and mostly described as ‘empty forests’ through activities including encroachment, mining, indiscriminate burning and hunting,” he said.

Asked about the country’s commitment towards keeping to the Achi Targets, a set of activities agreed by countries to the United Nation Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) to be implemented to protect nature, Ghana in his opinion had not done well in that vein.

Mr Bosu said field information and studies including the State of Environment Report by the Environmental Protection Agency 2016 and Country Environmental Analysis of Ghana’s Environment by the World Bank, shows the country has lost tremendous critical habitats and the species that they support.

“We failed in the past by not ensuring compliance to existing legal frameworks on biodiversity conservation and enacting new ones to complement existing regulations. These conventions are still very active.

“Ghana is still a signatory of CBD, so we have an opportunity to still act,” he said.

He called on the government especially the agencies involved in nature management to recommit towards the restoration of biodiversity by enforcing existing regulations and put in more funding for conservation.

He called on the government to desist from interfering in the work of state institutions mandated to ensure the security of biodiversity in the country.

Mr Bosu said there was an urgent need for the country to prioritise environmental sustainability in development planning and budgeting as well as strengthen institutions to ensure accountability and transparency in the utilization and management of natural resource.

He said the global community had seen the need to restore lost habitat and reduce the decline in biodiversity and as a result, the United Nations had launched the post-2020 biodiversity framework as well as the decade eco-restoration, which also presents opportunities for Ghana to recommit and restore its lost natural heritage.