The Freda Prempeh Foundation, an NGO that advocates environmental sustainability on Wednesday implored Ghanaians to support the government’s efforts to grow the forest, revive water bodies and bring back soil fertility.
In a statement issued to mark the 2024 World Environment Day, and signed by Dr Freda Prempeh, Founder and President, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani said, ‘we are the generation that can make peace with the environment’.
Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually on 5 June since 1973, the World Environment Day is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people across the world.
The theme for the 2024 global celebration is, ‘land restoration, desertification and drought resilience’.
It said land restoration remained a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems, which remained critical to achieve the UN S
ustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, up 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population, the statement indicated, saying the number and duration of droughts had increased by 29 per cent since 2000.
‘Without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050’, it said, and stressed the need for Ghanaians to remain friendly to the environment and focused on land restoration, halting desertification, and building drought resilience.
Touching on the 2024 Green Ghana, the statement described the government initiative as laudable, and called for massive participation in the tree planting exercise to help restore the nation’s depleted vegetative and forest covers.
However, it added the need for everybody to take the responsibility not only to plant a tree, but also ensure to nurture it too.
The statement also expressed worry about the impact of climate chang
e which was well felt in parts of the country, and entreated Ghanaians to avoid bad farming practices, bush burning, and alluvial and illegal mining.
Farming around river bodies, bushfires, illegal mining, and logging as well as indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste are all contributing to climate change, it stated, and called on everybody to be active in the nation’s climate change mitigation and adaptation measures to save the environment.
Source: Ghana News Agency