Ghana's Government is determined and committed to addressing the numerous environmental problems facing the country, Dr. Gheysika Adombire Agambila, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Science has said. Opening a two-day review Workshop on "Ghana's State of the Environment Report at Dodowa, the Deputy Minister said the sustainable harnessing of land, air, forests and water bodies was of a major concern to the government and it would do all it could to ensure that the future existence of the country was guaranteed in all policy decisions.

He said this was why Ghana was a signatory to a number of international environmental conventions, including the UN Framework on Climatic Change - the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention to Combat Drought and Desertification, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer as well as the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The workshop, organised by the Environmental Resource Management Programme (ERMP) under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment and Science with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) brought together about 30 environmentalists and development planners from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organisations, the Academia and the Media to review the state of Ghana's Environment Report and to recommend strategic policy for sound and safe environmental practices.

Dr Agambila said any attempt to downplay issues of the environment would not augur well for the envisioned accelerated growth of the country and he thus urged all stakeholders to ensure that Ghana was on the right-path as far as the preservation and protection of the environment was concerned.

Mr George Kwame Ofosu, Project Co-ordinator of the ERMP said the compilation and completing of the report on Ghana's state of the environment was not only to conform to international environmental conventions but also to assist policy makers and the country as a whole for planning purposes.

He said Ghana had over the years, been touted in the international circles as being a great pillar in environmental protection in Africa. Dr Patrick K. Ofori-Danso, Co-ordinator of the Environmental Science Programme of the University of Ghana, who chaired the opening ceremony said the workshop would consider four main thematic areas involving Forest, land and Agriculture, Water and Aquatic Environment, Atmosphere and Energy and Human Settlement with Biodiversity as the basis for reference.

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