WORKSHOP HELD ON ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE (PAGE 32, NOV 16)

A one-day sensitisation workshop on natural resource and environmental governance for some selected stakeholders has taken place at Jasikan in the Volta Region.
It attracted 50 participants, including officials of the Jasikan District Assembly, churches, traditional authorities, chain-saw operators and saw millers, who discussed and shared ideas on issues to check environmental degradation and the massive destruction of forest resources in the area.
It was organised by the Association of Jasikan District Civil Society ( AJADSCO), under the KASA project, in collaboration with CARE International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), to promote the effective implementation of a natural resource and environmental governance (NREG) programme.
Briefing the participants on the need for the workshop, Mr George Gyapong, Manager of KASA project, said it was to educate them on bye-laws on the preservation of the environment and how to make them operational.
He introduced them to the KASA project, which is aimed at reducing illegal harvesting of forest resources as a means of addressing environmental degradation in the northern part of the Volta Region.
That, he said, would focus on the degraded forest areas stretching from the Jasikan District to the Nkwanta District.
“In this area, apart from cocoa, coffee and food crops cultivation, the forest resources were harvested for construction, medicinal plants, ornamental plants by various stakeholders such as farmers, palm wine tapers, hunters, chainsaw operators, among others,” he said.
Mr Gyapong said the project would focus on the degraded forest reserve and in the communities fringing the Kabo River Forest Reserve.
He mentioned the beneficiary communities as Jasikan, Kudje, Worawora, Kabosu, Apesokubi, Wawaso, Asukawkaw, Katanga, Guama, Kadjebi, Bodada, Kute and Ayoma.
In the light of this, a bye-law education team was constituted, in collaboration with the chiefs and churches, to create awareness and knowledge of natural resources and environmental laws in order to enhance compliance and enforcement of the laws at the community level.
The team comprised representatives from the National Commission for Civic Education, assembly members, the Information Services Department, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Non Formal Education Division, the Forestry Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission, the Environmental, Health and Sanitation Department and AJADSCO.
The committee has been tasked to sensitise the chiefs and opinion leaders to, as well as train community members on, the sound management of natural resources and the environment through focused group discussions.
In his welcoming address, the Jasikan District Chief Executive, Nana Barima Bonsy II, commended the initiatives of AJADSCO in addressing the problem of environmental degradation in the area.
He urged all stakeholders to show commitment to the crusade for the sustainable use of natural resources, noting that environmental degradation was a worry to humanity and that if steps were not taken to address it, it would turn the country into a desert.
The resource persons were selected from the FSD, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the GNFS.