Kumasi: Professor Mercy Afua Adutwumwaa Derkyi, the Director of Quality Assurance and Academic Planning Directorate at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), has advocated for collaborative efforts to restore the nation’s degraded ecosystem. She emphasized the importance of integrating politics, science, human dimensions, and economic factors into the restoration approach during the Second Biennial Media Forum on Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, and Science held in Kumasi last week.
According to Ghana News Agency, the forum was organized by the Media Platform on Environment and Climate Change (MPEC), the Afro-Sino Center of International Relations (ASCIR), and the Steminist Foundation Ghana. The event, themed ‘Ecosystem Restoration: The Politics, The Science, The Human, and The Economy,’ brought together senior journalists, editors, and media practitioners from Bono, Bono East, Ashanti, and Greater Accra.
Prof Derkyi expressed concern over the country’s ecological degradation caused by deforestation, illegal mining, and unsustainable agricultural practices. She highlighted that the loss of ecosystem services impacts climate change and people’s well-being, hence the necessity for an enhanced restoration initiative. She stressed the requirement for strong political will in developing policies to support ecosystem restoration and called for active local community involvement in decision-making processes.
Prof Derkyi urged successive governments to ensure that existing ecosystems are preserved during restoration efforts. She underscored the importance of raising awareness about ecosystems, helping people understand the causes and consequences of ecosystem degradation. She advocated for context-specific restoration methods that combine scientific and traditional ecological knowledge, along with innovations in ecological science.
She highlighted the need for innovations like remote sensing and GIS technology to monitor ecosystem health. Prof Derkyi pointed out the significance of understanding how humans value ecosystems and the effects of management decisions on people, emphasizing the human dimensions in ecosystem restoration.
Moreover, Prof Derkyi called for transdisciplinary teams to design and implement projects integrating scientific insights, such as social sciences, to highlight the economic benefits of ecosystem restoration, including job creation and economic stimulation. She stressed the development of economic models to fund ecosystem restoration projects and stimulate local economies.
She concluded by advocating for effective collaboration among stakeholders, including government agencies, academia, media, and local communities, to foster inclusive partnerships that improve communication and collaboration between researchers and environmental journalists.