The Ministry of the Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has appealed to research institutions and scientists to come out with new varieties of tree species to be used to check desertification and climate change.

The Ministry also wants more research into varieties of crops, and come out with early maturing and high yielding ones for farmers, to help improve food production.

Dr. Sylvester Anemana, Chief Director of the Ministry, made the appeal at a Roundtable Meeting and Regional Learning Workshop on the implementation of the Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP) and the Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (SLWMP) in Wa.

He said the two projects had impacted positively on the lives of the people, as they had introduced the adoption of community tree nurseries in the communities, improved land usage, and promoted agricultural yields, as well as reduced bushfires.

The Chief Director said GEMP had addressed challenges in agriculture and food insecurity, and improved development of forestry, resource and social developments, as well as vegetation covers in the communities to help check climate change.

Dr. Anemana announced that 308 tree species had been procured at a cost of 2,000 Ghana cedis, for distribution to sustain the nurseries, while many of the nurseries in the communities were producing seedlings for planting throughout the year in the regions.

Mr. Carl Fiati, a Deputy Director at the Environmental Protection Agency, said GEMP would come to an end in February 2015, and expressed EPA’s appreciation to the Canadian government, for providing financial and technical assistance for the implementation of GEMP.

He said, the EPA in collaborating with its implementing partners, including the beneficiary communities, had submitted a “concept note” for consideration by the Canadian government for a new project; Ghana Rural Resilience and Innovative Project (GRRIP).

He said the EPA was optimistic that the Canadian government would give due consideration to the request, to enable the EPA to build on the successes and experiences gained through the implementation of GEMP.

“The Government of Canada is a trusted leader in environmental sustainability in Northern Ghana, and it is the hope of Ghana and the EPA that Canada will hold on to this position through further collaboration and support in this regard,” he said.

Mr. Fiati also expressed government’s appreciation to the World Bank for providing the needed technical assistance and guidance to government, to secure additional financing from the Global Environment Facility for the implementation of the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (SLWMP).

The additional financing had scaled up the area under sustainable land and water management interventions from the original target area of 2,000 hectares to an expanded area of 6,000 hectares sustainable forest management activities in eight gazetted forest reserves with the area of 172,225,54 hectares.

Stakeholders, including traditional rulers, officials of the Game and Wildlife, EPA, Department of Forestry, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, civil society organisations from the Upper West, Upper West and Northern Regions, are attending the three-day forum, to exchange and share knowledge, experiences and lessons learnt in the course of the project implementation.

It also offered the opportunity to cross-check monitoring and evaluation data and to discuss its bearing on project management and the eventual continuation of project activities, and come out with constraints and challenges and map out strategy to address them.