Accra, Nov. 24, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday said many nations including Ghana over the past decade were experiencing rapid decline in their natural resource base, attributable to both natural and anthropogenic origins.

He said the decline in many ways typified the unsustainable manner in which the resources were exploited and led to unprecedented global changes and called for more vigorous approach to address the problem. Vice President Mahama made the observation in an address read on his behalf at the launch of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Ghana "AKOBEN" programme, which seeks to rate the performance levels of the manufacturing companies with regards to compliance of laid down environmental impact assessment procedures.

He said the current unpredictable weather patterns, large scale desertification, high incidence of diseases, pollution of water bodies and invasion of arable lands by some strange animals and plants attested to the rapid changes that needed attention.

Vice President Mahama said to regulate the exploitation of resources, some conventional methods were used in environmental management practices, which included command-and-control and market base approaches. He said over the years, the conventional methods had been found to be costly and ineffective and compelled environmental practitioners to adopt new mechanisms to ensure sustainable environmental management. Vice President Mahama said the Environmental Performance Rating and Disclosure (EPRD), which was widely accepted as the "third wave" of environmental regulation alongside command-and-control and market based approaches were growing in popularity since disclosure had helped to reduce emissions.

He lauded the launch of the EPRD and said the measure would help companies to improve on the compliance of the environmental impact procedures.

Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology said conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the eradication of poverty were the two global changes confronting the country. She said protection of biodiversity was essential in the fight to reduce poverty and to achieve sustainable development since about 70 per cent of the world's population lived in rural areas and depended on biodiversity for their survival.

Ms Ayittey said building bridges between environmental management, poverty reduction and development were crucial tasks, which involved strengthening the rights of the poor over resources.

She called for collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to ensure that "AKOBEN" programme was sustained. Mr Jonathan Allotey, Executive Director of EPA warned that managements of companies that would continue to perform poorly on the AKOBEN assessment would be sanctioned.

Available environmental statistics of the ratings and disclosure under AKOBEN in the operations of 60 companies including the mining companies performed poorly and unsatisfactorily. Some major mining companies such as Anglogold Ashanti, Ghana Bauxite Company, Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited performed poorly while other industries like Accra Brewery Limited, Coca Cola Bottling Company, Kasapreko Company Limited, Alluworks, Ameen Sangari Limited, Dupaul Wood Treatment, GIHOC Distilleries, Guinness Ghana Limited in Kumasi, Juaben Oil Mills, Kinapharma, Twifo Oil Palm Plantation and Crocodile Machets Limited performed poorly. 24 Nov. 10