WORKSHOP ON LAND USE MANAGEMENT HELD AT EJISU (PAGE 35, AUGUST 9, 2010)

THE Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Jonathan A. Allotey, has called on Ghanaians to regard land as a strategic asset that demands efficient management in terms of policies and plans to maximise output.
He explained that efficient utilisation of land would not only be a pre-condition for “Ghana to fully develop its potential in agricultural development, but would also enhance efficient output in the use of energy, industry and transportation system in the country.”
Addressing participants in a workshop to validate the draft framework for promoting sustainable land use management in agricultural communities in Ghana, Mr Allotey said land degradation had “a serious consequence for sustainable agricultural growth and productivity.”
The workshop, which was jointly organised by the Ministries of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), was attended by 35 participants drawn from the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) across the country.
It sought to sensitise the participants to devise means of promoting land management and agricultural landscape in the country.
Mr Allotey stated that many rural households depended directly on land resources for their livelihood because it was a critical resource for agricultural development that directly and indirectly generated much of the country’s income and employment.
“Land also provides critical environmental services and important biodiversity values,” he stressed.
Mr Allotey, however, expressed concern about the increased land degradation in the country and its effects on the socio-economic development, adding that “natural habitats and biodiversity are being lost as a result of persistent land degradation.”
He said “degradation severely compromises services, including nutrient cycling, regulation of hydrological flows, provision of natural resources, and amelioration of climatic extremes and floods.”
Mr Allotey said notwithstanding the efforts being made by MoFA, MEST and EPA in promoting land management and agricultural landscapes, “little or no effort was made at institutionalising a framework for community land use planning nationally.”
He said it was for that reason that all stakeholders should consider land as a strategic asset and undertake a strategic approach to its management in terms of policies, plans and programmes for environmental, agricultural, energy, industrial, transportation and other uses.