[ 2014-08-20 ]

Media must highlight the environmental threat
Tema, Aug 19, GNA – A former Director of
Editorial of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr
Boakye Dankwa Boadi, has urged the media to lead
the national crusade against the reckless
destruction of the environment through mining.
He said journalists needed to do more to highlight
the extent of the threat to aid people to act
responsibly and work together to preserve the
eco-system and biodiversity.

The call comes amid the continuous massive
plundering of the country’s forests and the
pollution of water bodies through mining, illegal
logging and farming.

Ghana’s total forest cover, which stood at 8.2
million hectares, representing 34 per cent of the
total land area at the turn of the 20th Century,
has now shrunk to about 1.6 million hectares.

Addressing a three-day training workshop for
selected journalists in Tema, Mr Boadi, who also
served as a lecturer of the Ghana Institute of
Journalism, cited the findings of a survey
conducted by the Lands and Forestry Ministry,
which shows that more than 80 per cent of the
total land mass, originally lush with humid
tropical forests, has been ruined.

Mr Boadi described the situation as deeply
disturbing.

He noted that the rich savannah was also seriously
being lost at an alarming rate and warned that if
the proper things were not done quickly, the
nation stood the risk of getting stripped bare of
its forest cover in less than 20 years, given the
annual rate of deforestation, put at 65, 000
hectares.

The workshop, jointly organized by WACAM and CARE,
both non-governmental organizations (NGO), was
meant to help update the knowledge and build the
capacity of the participants to better report on
environmental issues.

Topics treated included, “History and overview
of mining investment in Ghana”, “Review and
gaps in the Minerals and Mining Act 703 –
benefits of Standing Forest”, “Health
Implications of Mining”, “Deficits in
Environmental Laws in Ghana, and How to address
them”, and “Environmental and community
reporting”.

Mr Boadi took the journalists through
environmental reporting and reminded them to make
deliberate efforts to study and become abreast of
the laws pertaining to the environment for
accurate and in-depth reportage.

Source - GNA

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