The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)) on Thursday donated technical equipment to the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) to enhance its operations in wetlands.

The items which were donated to the Keta and Songor offices of the Wildlife through the Ministry to enhance their day to day working activities included: two Equatorial Refractor Telescopes, two LED Binocular Microscope with Double Layer Mechanical Stage with Blank Slides Covers and lens cleaning papers.

Others were two 100” Tripod Stand Manual Projection Projector Screens, two Vortex Diamondback 10x42 Binoculars, two rechargeable Public Address Systems, Two Dell Network Projectors and three desktop computers.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation who received the equipment on behalf of the Ministry said that the effect of climate change was evident in the Keta and Ada wetlands where some villages had been affected by rising sea levels and erosion of pasturelands and farmlands.

He said that the intervention by the FAO was rather a timely one and would help the two offices work much more effectively to redeem the wetlands which had been affected by various human activities.

Professor Frimpong Boateng said that the disappearance of the mangroves and other aquatic lives such as crabs, fishes and other marine lives was due to encroachment of humans in the reserves.

“We know that this collaboration is the beginning and I believe that it will be successful and we can apply the same principles to other wetlands not only in Ghana but also across the African region,” he said.

The Professor said that the Telescope would assist the forestry officers to observe from afar what was happening and was sure that the livelihood of the people was going to improve and also increased resilience to climate change.

Jocelyne Brown Hall, the Deputy Regional Representative of FAO Africa, said she was delighted to present the equipment to the Ministry, with the hope that the project would work to bring together communities and stakeholders to preserve wetlands for the furthering of food security and provide resilient livelihood to communities.

Ms Hall expressed her joy for the collaboration between her office, the local communities and other stakeholders and was hopeful that the equipment would not only be beneficial to only the two local communities but to other wetlands across the nation to improve work.

She also commended the Ministry for choosing to work in partnership with them and looked forward to the success of these communities.

Mr Dickson Agyeman, the Manager of the Songor Ramsar Site and UNESCO Biosphere reserves who received the equipment on behalf of the two wetlands, told the Ghana News Agency that they were delighted for the equipment because the last time they had such tools to work with was about 15 to 20 years ago and that these had come at a time when they needed them most.

“The telescopes and binoculars would be used to observe the activities of birds that visit the site and the Public address systems together with the projectors would improve our outreach programmes to sensitise school children and the community on how to protect the wetlands,” he said.