By Joyce Gyekye
Ghana will at COP 26, showcase efforts at addressing climate change within the 10 years. This will be done during the Ghana Day at Glasgow on the 10th of November, 2021.
The event will be an opportunity to share ideas and learn from others as well. Some of the projects to be highlighted include interventions at lowering deforestation and landscape restoration.
Illegal mining, known as Galamsey has caused depletion of the country’s forest cover, destroyed water bodies and is threatening one of Ghana’s foreign exchange sooner, cocoa. This is as a result of selling farm lands for illegal miners and cutting of trees around existing farms, exposing the cash crop to the harsh weather.
Governments have tried addressing the galamsey issue by deploying joint military troops to areas rife with the illegal activities. As that is still in place, the government on June 1, 2021 embarked on a nationwide exercise of planting five million trees as part of a programme to green the country.
At COP 26 in Glasgow, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor will tell the world how the Galamsey is being addressed as well as the Green Ghana Project.
Civil Society Organizations like Arocha Ghana are also contributing to fight Galamsey.
Heeding to Scientific predictions of climate change have been ignored by climate sceptics for long, even in developing countries. So is the Anlo Beach Community of Ghana in the Western Region, the people ignored a report in 1995 to move from their current location to a place provided for them.
Noble Dogbatse, an Opinion Leader for the community said the new location was far from their community, hence they ignored the advice at the time.
Today they are faced with the harsh reality of climate change, as the waves continue to wreak havoc.