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EPA calls for urgent protection of biodiversity to save human existence

By
Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA

Accra, Dec. 11, GNA
– The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting the support of Civil
Society Organisations and other Public Sector players to help accelerate
efforts at saving Ghana’s biodiversity, which is facing rapid depletion.

The protection of
the country’s biodiversity, and for that matter, the entire world’s, has become
critical as Global reports indicate that 75 per cent of the Earth’s land
surface is significantly altered.

Also, 66 per cent of
the ocean area is experiencing increasing cumulative impacts, and over 85 per
cent of wetland areas have been lost.

“The most
significant direct drivers of biodiversity loss are habitat loss and
fragmentation and direct over-exploitation in both terrestrial and marine
ecosystems,” a recent Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES) global assessment report has revealed.

At the EPA’s
round–table discussion on the IPBES Activities, held in Accra on Wednesday,
environmentalists and academia were asked to help in raising awareness and
protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, which were the support lines for the
existence of humans, animals and plants.

Mrs Jewel Kudjawu,
the Chief Programme Officer, Natural Resource Department, EPA, who doubles as
the National Focal Point of the IPBES, said Africa had extraordinary rich
biodiversity and ecosystems as well as a wealth of indigenous and local
knowledge, but all that were eroding.

She said as one of
the most rapidly urbanising continents, Africa was also facing rapid and
unplanned urbanisation that puts immense pressure on biodiversity.

She said it was
revealed in the IPBES Report that Africa’s richness in biodiversity and
ecosystem services was underestimated, partly because of very few studies
assessing the value of nature’s contributions to human well-being.

Some 20 per cent of
Africa’s land surface (6.6 million km2) is estimated to be degraded because of
soil erosion, salinization, pollution and loss of vegetation or soil fertility.

“Africa’s current
population of 1.25 billion is likely to double by 2050, putting severe pressure
on the continent’s biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, unless
appropriate policies and strategies are adopted and effectively implemented,”
she stated.

Mrs Kudjawu said
biodiversity in areas in the Asia-Pacific and the Americas were all being
threatened, as almost one million species were endangered, while rapid
expansion and land degradation continued.

She said the IPBES
was, therefore, formed in 2012 by about 130 member states, to strengthen the
Science policy interphase for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the
conservation and sustainable use, long term human wellbeing and sustainable
development.

The platform has
over the period, produced seven thematic and one methodological assessment
report, all of which painted a bleak picture for the sustenance of biodiversity
that had for decades been providing functioning ecosystems, which supply
oxygen, clean air, water, pollination of plants, pests control, wastewater
treatment and many ecosystem services.

She, however,
disclosed that some African countries had declared 14 per cent of the
continent’s land mass and 2.6 per cent of the seas as protected areas, while
some sites have been designated as wetlands of international importance;
important bird and biodiversity areas; as well community conserved areas; among
other things.

She, however, said
governments, especially in Africa, needed to increase efforts and measures
being taken to protect biodiversity, as in the case of Ghana’s Ramsar sites,
that were being taken over by residents.

Mr Kwabena
Badu-Yeboah, the Acting Director, Environmental Assessment and Audit
Department, EPA, said Climate change, invasive alien species, disease and
pollution were also found to contribute to biodiversity loss.

“By destroying
nature, we are undermining the fundamental bedrock that enables our health and
well-being, our clean water and clean air, our food and medicine supply, our
economic prosperity and social progress, and, indeed, our very survival here on
Earth”.

He, therefore,
charged all stakeholders to help save the biodiversity by actively engaging in
the IPBES activities to help sustain human life.

Professor Alfred
Oteng-Yeboah of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Ghana, and a
founding member of the IPBES Platform, said the workshop aimed at sensitising
and mobilising support for Ghanaians to participate in IPBES activities.

As the IPBES global
assessment report demonstrates, we have the knowledge, and we have the
scientific evidence and policy options to address the threats of biodiversity
loss, he said.

He said the success
of IPBES depended on the participation and involvement of experts of all
continents and especially Africa as it hosted rich biological diversity and the
prospects in terms of development in the next decade.

GNA

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