Stakeholders urged to contribute to National Environmental Policy
Professor Clement Dorm-Adzobu, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the Central University College on Friday called for active participation of all stakeholders to contribute to the drafted National Environmental Policy document.
He said the new global trend of environmental challenges required that all the citizenry contributed ideas towards a holistic environmental national policy to protect and sustain the natural resources for posterity.
Prof. Dorm-Adzobu, who was a facilitator at a regional consultative workshop in Takoradi to solicit inputs into the national environmental draft policy, said the emerging global environmental challenges required concerted efforts at stemming the tide of environmental pollution.
He observed that environmental challenges such as desertification, flooding, climate change, electronic-waste disposal, oil and gas pollution, plastic waste among other environmental challenges required rigorous efforts from all the stakeholders in protecting and sustaining the environment for the future generation.
“The main aim of this national policy is to effectively and efficiently exploit, use natural resources and to maintain the environment in a friendly manner not only for the current generation but also for the existence of future generations,” he said.
Explaining the tenets of the new drafted policy, Prof. Dorm-Adzobu, noted that, it sought to maintain ecosystem and ecological processes essential for the functioning of the biosphere, ensure sound management of natural resources and the environment, adequately protect humans, animals and plants, their biological communities and habitats against harmful impacts and destructive practices, and preserve biological diversity.
In order not to deviate from the Policy in the National Environmental Action Plan, 1991, by the then Environmental Protection Council (EPC), Prof. Dorm-Adzobu indicated that, the strategic plan took into consideration the following principles that were consistent with the above policy: Optimum sustainable yield in the use of resources and ecosystems, use of most cost effective means to achieve environmental objectives, use of incentives in addition to regulatory measures.
The rest were delegation of decision-making and action to the most appropriate level of government, polluter pays for the cost of preventing and eliminating pollution and nuisances caused by him/her as well as public participation in environmental decision-making and international co-operation.
The participants were drawn from the Environmental Protection Agency, Metropolitan, Municipal and district assemblies, Forestry Commission, Wildlife Service Division Town and Country Planning and traditional authorities.
Source: GNA