Workshop on fire early warning system opens

Accra, Oct 12, GNA - Mrs Esther Obeng-Dapaah, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines on Monday described wildfire as perhaps the single most important threat to the integrity of Ghana's remaining forest. She said in the past fire used, as a tool for land management did not cause considerable degradation to either the forest or the production potential of soils.

"However, this situation changed drastically during the severe drought of 1982 /83 when wildfire became a major cause of forest and land degradation.

"The result is that currently, wildfire threatens the promotion of timber, plantation development, bio-diversity conservation, agricultural production including livestock, watershed management and the maintenance of environmental quality".

Mrs Obeng-Dapaah said this in a speech read for her by the Deputy Minister, Mr Andrew Adjei Yeboah at the opening of a five-day twin conference on: "West Africa Network Meeting on Earth Observation and Environmental Change" and "GOFC-Gold Workshop on the Requirements for a Fire Early Warning System for Africa", which opened in Accra.

The conference, with participants from research institutions and organisations across the West African Region as well as partners from some advance countries is to deliberate on some critical environmental challenges militating against the ecological stability of the planet. It is envisaged that a West African Regional Network (WARN) of universities and research institutions would be consolidated at the end of the workshop that will assist regional transfer of research capacity and build on the comparative advantages of partner universities. Mrs Obeng-Dapaah said large portions of Ghana's GDP had been lost to ravaging wildfires in recent years.

"In certain areas of the country the process of desertification has been hastened due to wildfires which have permanently destroyed delicate vital soil material," adding that "a number of Forest Reserves, which were formally tall, dense tropical forest, rich in biodiversity have become grassland with scattered fire-damaged relict canopy trees". Admitting that the absence of land use plans could have resulted in the under-use, over-use or misuse of the national land policy with other policies, she said, ensuring sustainable land use required a complete inventory of all the natural resources in the country as a basis for producing effective land use plans to serve as a guide to land users and managers.

Mrs Obeng-Dapaah said the combination of space-based and on-the-ground observation was particularly useful to monitor environmental changes across national boundaries. She said it was for this reason that the conference was most welcomed to Ghana so that participants could share information on curbing cross-border degradation efforts.

She said the economic cost of environmental disasters had often been phenomenal and the nation was often left unprepared in responding to them.

Mrs Obeng-Dapah said the World Bank estimated that at the end of October, this year, the floods in the three northern regions cost Ghana 952 billion cedis.

The Conference is being organised by the Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, and Cheikh Anta University, Senegal, with sponsorship from the Global Observation of Forest and land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) and Global Earth Observing Systems (GEO-GEOSS), among others.

Mr Johnathan Allotey, Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency in a speech read for him said the objectives set for the sub-regional meeting underscored the importance of developing, harnessing and sharing technologies that helped to provide clearer expression and deeper understanding of the dynamics of environmental change.

"Globally, and particularly in our part of the world, the environment has been and will continue to be a vital source of livelihood for many.

"For these reasons, sound policy decisions and positive actions by societies and individuals are needed in order to sustain the environment and the well-being of its inhabitants," he said.

Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana, said areas that were formerly desert lands in the Middle East had become forests, hence the need for Africa to re-organise its forest once again.

He said the trans-boundary dimensions of environmental change particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa required organised efforts to understand, through research, plan with available spatial data and implement effective responses through advocacy.