PROJECT TO RESTORE DEGRADED LANDS LAUNCHED (BACK PAGE, OCT 6, 2010

A PROJECT for the restoration of degraded lands, water and other natural resources in the country’s Savannah zone has been launched in Tamale.
Supported by a 7.4 million Canadian dollar grant from the Canadian Government, the project will be executed under the Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP) to combat desertification and drought in the zone.
The grant is to be co-ordinated by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
The project will also seek to enhance the capacity of the beneficiary communities and institutions, both public and private, to implement and sustain the project effectively for their long-term benefit.
To prepare for its take-off, a capacity-building workshop has been held for community leaders, assemblies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other institutions in the three northern regions to equip them with the needed skills to formulate effective project proposals that seek to address the priority areas of the GEMP.
The workshop was organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is the implementing agency for the GEMP.
The GEMP is one of the strategies that the government is using to achieve the targets of the National Action Programme (NAP) to combat desertification and drought in Ghana which was formulated in 2003 in furtherance of Ghana’s ratification of the United Nation’s Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
A technical assistant at the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Raymond Babanawo, told the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the workshop that the GEMP would accept project proposals under two categories.
“The proposals from individuals and communities will fall under one category, while those from NGOs, assemblies and other institutions will fall under another,” he noted.
He said each proposal would be assessed on its merit with regard to its ability to address the priority areas of the GEMP, including combating desertification and drought and its relation to poverty alleviation.
Dr Babanawo said an effective proposal was one whose output would be quantifiable, such as showing evidence of a land area protected from degradation, a degraded area rehabilitated and bio-diversity corridor created.
The Northern Regional Director of the EPA, Mr Iddrisu Abu, noted that the training programme would also enhance the skills of the district and regional environmental committees to effectively vet the proposals.
He said the EPA would work to ensure the success of the GEMP by ensuring proper networking among all the stakeholders and the delivery of all projects right on schedule.
The government and its partners are strengthening efforts to replenish the vegetation and forest resources in the north, after realising that the north is likely to suffer the effects of climate change more.
Already, over the past few years, the savannah area has witnessed periods of drought, erratic rainfall patterns, floods and an increase in temperature that have sparked the spread of diseases such as cerebro-spinal meningitis.
The unpredictable weather pattern and rain disasters, coupled with deforestation and other forms of land degradation, have impacted negatively on crop cultivation and livestock production and these have heightened food insecurity, particularly among the rural poor in northern Ghana.