Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

There are three species of frog — Baumann’s reed frog (Hyperolius baumanni), lime reed frog (Hyper- olius fusciventris), Bobiri reed frog (Hyperolius sylvaticus), and one lizard species, the false agama (Agama sylvanus) endemic to Ghana [ ] 112 Actions to Implement the Convention From the over 160 actions that were pencilled since the fourth report, ap- proximately 13 per cent of these were undertaken. The significant outcomes were: • Law enforcement having received a major boost with the setting up of the prosecution department of the Forestry Commission • Awareness creation activities having also been undertaken across the country through the REDD+ Roadshow, Forestry Week and sim- ilar sector activities aimed at mass awareness creation on biodiversity • The Forestry Commission and Newmont Golden Ridge Resources implementing an offset project to help quantify the residual impacts of a gold mine • The government of Ghana pub- lished a new Forest and Wildlife Policy that aims among others at “the conservation and sustain- able development of forest and wildlife resources for the mainte- nance of environmental stability and continuous flow of optimum benefits from the socio cultural and economic goods and services the forest environment provides to the present and future generations” • Ghana is also implementing a Sustainable Land and Water Man- agement project aimed at reducing land degradation and enhancing maintenance of biodiversity in selected micro watersheds in the Northern Savanna region • The Forestry Commission has also established a Rapid Response Team to identify and deal with illegal activities in protected areas • A new wildlife conservation legisla- tion is currently before parliament Key achievements in mainstreaming • Linkages with ongoing initiatives such as (REDD+) and Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade are critical for ensuring conservation of biodiversity in a synergistic way • The Emission Reduction Pro- gramme under REDD+ • The Forest Investment Programme. • Maintenance of the Globally Sig- nificant Biodiversity Areas • Akoben Initiative of EPA aimed at compliance monitoring for environmental standards in the extractive industry, particularly mining. T he importance of biodiversity to Ghana may be considered along the lines of benefits that are derived from the variety of living organisms. These are essential for sustaining agriculture, health, ecosystem services including climate mitigation, wealth, aesthetics and general human wellbeing. In 2013, agriculture in general (classified to include fisheries, forestry and logging) contributed 21.9 per cent of Ghana’s GDP. It was projected that by 2017, forestry and fisheries sectors would grow at a rate of 1.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively with associated sectoral contribution of 1.4 per cent and 1.0 per cent to GDP. Maintenance of biodiversity is therefore essential for the sustainable production of food and other agricultural products and the benefits these provide to humanity, including food security, nutrition and livelihoods. It is widely acknowledged that biodiversity and agriculture are strongly interrelated because while biodiversity is critical for agriculture, it can also contribute to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Indeed, sustainable agriculture both promotes and is enhanced by biodiversity. Community helping nature Albert Ansah Ghana