Accra (Greater Accra), 10th June 99 ?

President Jerry John Rawlings on Wednesday appealed to United Nations agencies responsible for protecting the environment to assist Ghana to check illegal fishing practices by foreign fishing vessels.

He said Korean and some other fishing vessels are engaging in unorthodox fishing practices that make it impossible for young fishes to grow.

"They clean the sea bed. This is what you should be checking," President Rawlings told Professor Hans Van Ginkel, Rector of the Japan-based UN University, at the Castle, Osu.

Prof Ginkel is attending the Third Board Meeting of the UN-run Institute of Natural Resources based at the University of Ghana, Legon.

One of the objectives of the institute is to develop policies which would enable African countries to manage their natural resources well.

President Rawlings said Africa's environment is being degraded and, in Ghana for example, rivers are drying up because vegetation along their banks have been destroyed.

"This is not what is happening in Nigeria. In Nigeria, laws against farming along river banks are enforced. This is what I want to see happen in Ghana."

President Rawlings said it is important to implement programmes the Institute formulates for the preservation of the environment.

Prof. Ginkel said the institute does not concentrate on such resources as gold, diamond and other minerals because ordinary people do not benefit directly from them.

"We place emphasis on the soil, water, vegetation as well as traditional food crops," he said.