Accra, Sept. 26, GNA -Stakeholders at a
two-day national workshop have underscored the need for duty-bearers to
mainstream biodiversity into decision making at the national and local levels
because of its significant economic benefits for livelihoods and poverty
reduction.
They said the integration of biodiversity into
the national development agenda was very crucial in achieving the country’s
development objectives and Sustainable Development Goals.
While there is the general understanding that
biodiversity is crucial for human survival and well-being, biodiversity
information, which should be a key element in planning, is not adequately
factored in national planning and development processes.
Indeed, there is less effort to ensure
sustainable use of biodiversity for national development, culminating in the
fast loss of the country’s biodiversity resources.
“One of
the things we are losing sight of as a nation is the threat to biodiversity.
There have been several alarms raised but unfortunately, we seem to be
impervious to them. However, as we roll up our sleeves to work at the
Sustainable Development Goals, the issues of biodiversity will constantly
confront us,” Dr. George Essegbey, Co-Project Coordinator, Ghana Connect
project said at the opening session of the second National Stakeholders
Workshop.
Dr Essegbey said with the visible threat to
biodiversity, the question of how to address the danger to biodiversity as a
nation and how to ensure that biodiversity information regularly underpins
decision making at the highest level of governance as well as at the lowest was
key to avoiding the destruction.
Indeed, the contribution of biodiversity to
the economy in terms of job creation, incomes, communities, exchange earnings,
good forest products, export and protection of the environment had not received
the requisite attention.
Professor Victor Agyeman, the Director-General
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, echoed the importance of
biodiversity to agriculture, which has been selected as the focus sector for
Ghana’s Connect project to consider for mainstreaming of diversity as there is
sufficient data to inform decisions.
“Biodiversity underpins agriculture, which is
the bedrock of the national economy. It is therefore very important that in the
quest for increased productivity in the sector the biodiversity base is not
destroyed,” he emphasised.
It is to push for this recognition that the
United Nations Environmental Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre
(UNEP-WCMC) is coordinating a four-year project (Connect) with Global GEF
allocation of $5million.
Ghana, Mozambique, and Uganda are piloting the
project with other partners, including International Institute for the
Environment and Development (IIED) and Prospex.
Connect will help achieve sustainable
development by bringing biodiversity information to the heart of government
decision making processes using actionable biodiversity information.
In Ghana, the project is jointly implemented
by the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) and the Science and Technology Policy
Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR-STEPRI) under a Memorandum of Understanding.
Mr Abisha Mapendembe, Programme Officer,
UNEP-WCMC, said the project objective is to ensure that biodiversity was taken
into account in decision making across government sectors by improving
development decision makers’ access to and use of biodiversity information and
embedding biodiversity information within national development decision making
processes
To this end, the project would develop
biodiversity information product for each of the pilot countries through demand
driven processes that clearly understands the in-country demands for the
information as the barriers to using the biodiversity information within
government decision making processes.
It will also mobilise and repackage
biodiversity data and information from a range of sources (national and
international to meet the demands identified above and strengthen the
connection between decision makers and biodiversity and ecosystem services data
providers in order to sustainably provide policy relevant spatially explicit
information to meet national needs.
Mr. Eric Okoree, the Chief Executive Officer
of the National Biosafety Authority, said there was the need to tackle issues
of governance of biological biodiversity as it is key to human existence.
He said if proper attention is paid to
biodiversity the fortunes of the country would change and the citizenry would
be the ultimate beneficiaries.
Mr Ernest Lampety, Project Manager Ghana
Connect, said enough progress had been made in moving the project forward but
much more needed to be done to guide decision making, using biodiversity
information.
GNA