Prof. Erasmus Owusu, the interim Executive Director of the Ghana Wildlife Society (GWS), has advocated for more efforts to safeguard biodiversity, particularly the Mole biological environment.
Given the fast depletion of biodiversity caused by human activity, he stated that pragmatic steps to safeguard species on the verge of extinction were necessary.
Prof. Owusu made the request during a two-day stakeholder roundtable in Tamale, the Northern regional capital. The GWS arranged it, with EU assistance.
Representatives from parks and protected areas including Mole National Park, Bui National Park, the Gbele Resource Centre, the Eastern and Western Wildlife Corridors, and the Mole-Bui Wildlife Corridor were present.
Among concerns considered were conservation within the Mole biological environment and lessons acquired from the implementation of the Savannah Integrated Biodiversity Conservation Initiative (SIBCI) project which concluded last year.
The three-year initiative aims to promote more sustainable, participative, and integrated administration of the Mole National Park and its surrounding environments.
Prof. Owusu, who is also a GWS Council Member, stated that illicit loggers and miners have seriously attacked the country’s parks and protected areas in recent years, threatening biodiversity.
He stated that the SIBCI project made a substantial contribution to the resilience and empowerment of communities around the periphery of protected corridors who had previously relied on the parks for their livelihoods.
“Based on the experience we had from the project, there is the need to institutionalize this forum for further deliberations and commit to the process of conservation of protected areas in the country” Prof. Owusu added.
Dr. Richard Gyimah, Director of Stakeholder and Eco-tourism at the Forestry Commission’s Wildlife Division, emphasized the SIBCI project’s substantial effect.
He said it had helped in the effective management of the Mole National Park, adding that “through the project the park was provided with logistics, resources and other forms of support which has gone a long way to transform the place”.