Ho, Oct 20, GNA - Mr Ken Kinney, Executive Director of the Development Institute (DI), an eco-system restoration advocacy group, on Tuesday expressed worry about the degradation of the Weto-Gbeka mountain range in the Volta Region.

He said the range that formed part of the Akwapim-Togoland Mountains stretching from Kpeve in the South Dayi District to Avatime and areas near Hohoe in the region, has inlets that supply water to the Akosombo Dam.

Mr Kinney was speaking at the launch of a one-year "Advocacy Campaign to Restore the Weto

-Gbeka Ecosystem and Review of Act 583", in Ho. He called on the people to support the Institute that has planned to educate people in

communities living along the range on the need to stop degrading the environment and to ensure that

the issue became government policy. The programme was attended by Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Civil Society

Organizations (CSOs), Foresters, officers of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and

representatives of communities located along the range. Mr Samuel Mawutor, Development and Project Officer of DI, said the project would carry

sensitise the people to enable them change their attitude towards the environment. He said the group would liaise with government to vary provisions of Act 583 of 2000, dealing

with re-forestation, to make it more relevant to the needs of the people living in forest areas. Mr Mawutor called on non-governmental agencies dealing in the environment to work as a team. Mr Joseph Amenorwode, Volta Regional Minister attributed the wanton destruction of the

environment to "our unguarded exploitation of the natural resources to satisfy our insatiable wants". "If today the Development Institute would like to spearhead the reaforestation of the Weto

range, we must all embrace the programme and congratulate it for the bold initiative," he said. He called on the people to plant early maturing and of commercial value trees.