Ankasa (W/R), March 10, GNA 97 The European Union has provided accommodation and office equipment at a cost of 7.8 million Euros for staff of Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission at the Ankasa and Bia Conservation areas.

They include 43 housing units for junior, middle and senior staff, two office and visitors' accommodation facilities, a four-bedroom house for the regional manager of Wildlife Division and three six-room camps.

Others are seven Nissan pich-ups, four Toyotas pick-ups, two tractors, a trailer and a mower, eight motor bikes and office equipment.

Speaking at the inauguration of the facilitates at Ankasa in the Jomoro District, the Deputy Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation to Ghana, Mr. Kurt Cornelis, said the facilities were meant to improve the conservation and management capacity of the Wildlife Division at the Ankasa and Bia Conservation areas.

He said studies had been financed by the EU to prepare management plans and support preparatory concepts of sustainable management and utilisation of natural resources in off-reserve areas to empower civil society and reduce poverty. Mr. Cornelis said a tourism development strategy for parks had been developed and it would be discussed with stakeholders and implemented. He said forests covered about 30 percent of the world's land area and globally, more than 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty depended on forests for their survival. Mr. Cornelis said resources are disappearing and numerous plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction and this called for collaborative efforts to protect them.