The Chief of Kpipkira Naba Danzuuri II has admonished people of the traditional area to remain resolute and use cultural festivals as an educational means to protect the environment and building resilience towards the negative impact of climate change.
According to him, the country is losing a lot of its natural resources as a result of greedy practices such as indiscriminate felling of trees, farming practices and bush fires hence the urgent need to protect the environment.
Naba Danzuuri II was speaking at this year’s Danjuar festival at Kpikpira in the Tempane District of the Upper East Region on the theme: ‘Using tradition festival as a means to environmental protection and sustainability’.
He appealed to government develop and enforce stringent environmental protection laws to save the nation as some greedy people were felling trees for their parochial interest.
“The extinction of these trees has further caused desertification and exposed our surroundings to drought. The changing pattern of rains as a result indiscriminate felling of trees have disrupted our farming activities and further exacerbate the poverty level of our people,” he said.
Naba Danzuuri welcomed government introduction of the forestry brigade aim at protecting the forest and environment but urged government to consider including traditional leaders for a successful implementation.
He appealed to government to as a matter of urgency consider investing in the economic Shea and Dawadawa trees under its planting for food and jobs to help reduce poverty in the area.
He also admonished the forestry commission to stop issuing licenses to some unscrupulous people destroying forest reserves under the pretext of salvaging rosewoods.
He again appealed to government to fix the road network between Bolgatanga to Garu and the Garu-Nakpanduri-Bunkpurugu road.
For her part, Upper East Regional minister Paulina Abayage called on all and sundry to be ambassadors of environmental protection and plant trees as the surest way to safeguard the environment and improve livelihoods in the region.
She tasks all Municipal and District assemblies to organize consistent clean-up exercises to avert sanitation related diseases and injections.
She further called for a stop to the indiscriminate disposal of polythene bags and plastic materials in the region.
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By: Frederick Awuni | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
