Species extinction awareness creation (Ghana)

Ghana signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at Rio de Janeiro on August 29, 1992. This therefore puts the responsibility on the authorities to put in place measures to conserve the country’s biological resources. There is an increasing pressure from agricultural expansion, timber extraction, hunting and other socio-economic factors which have negatively impacted on the biological resources in the country.

Currently, Ghana has 2,974 indigenous plant species, 504 fishes, 728 birds, 226 mammals, 221 species of amphibians and reptiles. Three species of frog, 1 lizard, and 23 species of butterflies have been recorded to be endemic. The Government of Ghana is making frantic efforts to conserve these species and also ensure their sustainable utilization whenever necessary, in line with the objectives of the CBD.

The Government has adopted public education and awareness creation as some of the tools in achieving this objective. In pursuit of this, the Chiefs and people of the communities surrounding the Atiwa Forest in the East Akyim District of the Eastern Region of Ghana have been targeted to benefit from this campaign.

In this project, a team of environmentalists, conservationists and policy makers visited the targeted communities and interacted with them with the aim of educating them on the need to adopt practices that will help conserve the biological resources in the Atiwa Forest. Particularly the unique plant genetic resources in and around the forest. The opportunity was also used to explain the objectives of the CBD to the people and discuss with them the role they have to play in meeting the objectives. The opportunity was also used to interact with school children in some of the schools in the district to create the awareness in them on the need to conserve the dwindling biological resources in the district. It is expected that, as the school children participate in the activities of Wildlife Clubs that have been established as part of the campaign in line with the implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy, the desire to conserve wildlife will be inculcated in them.