Our coastal resources are in jeopardy – Mr Agbogah

Mr. Kofi Agbogah, Programme Coordinator of the Coastal Resource Centre, has called for the creation of relevant policies to regulate the depletion of the coastal resources in order to protect them for future generations.

“There is no single policy that regulates shoreline development, our land use policies do not adequately address the issues, as such there is chaotic development in the coastal Western Region”, he said.

Mr. Agbogah said this when he discussed the topic:“Western Region’s Coastal Resource-Land and Seascapes: Our Livelihoods or Our waste Repositories” at the dialogue session of the ongoing four-day Policy Fair in the Western Region.

He said the depletion of resources, degradation of beaches, flooding, destruction of wetlands and sea pollution among others need to be addressed through appropriate policies and their effective implementation.

Mr. Agbogah said coastal resources were important components of the biological and physical resources that sustained human life adding that the land and seascape which constituted the coastal zone have not received the needed attention from environmentalists and policy makers.

He said though fish contributed about 60 per cent of the animal protein intake of the average Ghana and 1.6 per cent in GDP, little was being done to protect wetlands and aquatic eco-systems.

Mr. Agbogah said isolated policies for specific resources would not help and advocated an integrated development policy based on research to address the resource depletion of the coastal sector.

“An integrated policy that will recognize the need for Marine Protected Areas, the first of its kind in the Region, to protect the beautiful under water life which is also for fisheries enhancement and even tourism”, he said.

Answering questions from the Public, Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo debunked the idea that curtailing illegal mining needed a political will, saying various attempts to rid them had proved futile due to information leakage and that a collective efforts from all well meaning Ghanaians could help stem the tide.

Mr. Mike Hammah, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, said there was a new policy in the offing to smash out malpractices in the mining sector.**