Ms Sherry Ayittey, the Minister of Environment Science and technology, on Thursday reminded Ministerial delegations at the on-going COP 11 that achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends on the ability of nations to preserve and protect biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Ms Ayittey said this when she facilitated a discussion on the topic; "Biodiversity for livelihoods and Poverty Reduction" at the on-going COP 11, in Hyderabad in India.
She said it was important to empower indigenous and local communities by providing rights based approaches to deal with managing resources and sharing the benefits.
"Knowledge, information, technology and support systems are critical to ensure communities and countries realize the economic potential of biodiversity and ecosystem services, "she said.
"We have both the information and knowledge related to biodiversity and its links to eradicating poverty. However, we are seriously challenged with regard to translating this knowledge into impactful actions."
Sharing some of the programmes initiated by the government of Ghana towards biodiversity conservation, she an initiative called the eco brigade had been setup to embark on cleaning and forestation.
This involves the recruitment of 10,000 youths who are charged with the responsibility of cleaning and restoring the vegetative cover of the whole of Ghana’s beaches from Aflao in the east to Half Assini in the West.
On other initiatives, she said the government secured a 2.5 million dollars loan from the African Development Bank to acquire two weed harvesters to clear aquatic weeds which had engulfed the Lower Volta and Tano River Basins.
Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, Indian Minister for Environment and Forest, said posterity would not forgive the current generation if nothing was done to preserve the biodiversity.
"We need to share our responsibilities to preserve mother Earth but also recognize that we need renewed thinking on how we can integrate biodiversity and livelihoods into the new global developmental goals", she said.
Ms Natarajan said lack of awareness and understanding of linkages between biodiversity and poverty eradication, limitations on the abilities of people at local level to deal with climate change, disasters and problems related to market links limited the ability to move forward the agenda on biodiversity and livelihood securities.
"We need a framework that addresses the role of biodiversity in securing livelihoods and reducing poverty that is beyond the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) in order to capture the common goods than only look at biodiversity as private goods. In this regard, there is a need for TEEB to grow out of the current context", she said.
Swedish Minister for the Environment, Ms Lena Ek, said regional and sub-regional approaches to managing coastal and marine ecosystems and biodiversity were critical to ensure sustainable management and use of marine resources.
She suggested that National biodiversity programmes should be sensitive and cognizant of the opportunities and challenges that are offered by green growth models and rights based approaches.
From Albert Oppong-Ansah, GNA Special Correspondent, Hyderabad, India (Courtesy, Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, Global Environmental Facility and Internews).