Accra, May 14, GNA - Prof Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Chairman of the National Biodiversity Committee, on Thursday said biodiversity issues were not receiving attention even though they had great influence on climate change. The effects of climate change which, he said, cannot be denied as being experienced in Ghana was because biodiversity contributed to carbon sequestration and thus regulate and influence local climatic conditions.

"Biodiversity's role in human wellbeing, particularly in its life insurance, is being underplayed," Prof Oteng-Yeboah said at the inception workshop for a project on the review of the national biodiversity strategy and action plan and strengthening national biodiversity clearing house mechanism.

The project seeks to revise the national biodiversity strategy (NBS) to make it conform to the programme of work of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); to finalise the existing draft action plan to facilitate the implementation of the national strategy and to come up with a draft national policy paper on biological diversity. Prof Oteng-Yeboah said biodiversity did not only refer to plants and animal species but also the habitats that they lived in. Effective awareness creation campaigns on biodiversity and the ecosystem goods and services were essential for human wellbeing The Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and technology, Dr Omane Boamah, called for effective co-ordination in the management of the country's biological resources, saying it would ensure cohesiveness in their conservation and sustainable use.

Prof William Oduro, a senior lecturer, Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, who chaired the function said it was important that legislations were put in place to make the conservation of biodiversity work for Ghana. 14 May 09