Ghana will join the rest of the world to mark this year’s International Biological Diversity Day on Wednesday, May, 22.

The 2019 celebration will be under the national theme: “Promoting Our Indigenous Foods and Medicines; a Catalyst for Achieving the Ghana beyond Aid Agenda”.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, said this year’s celebration seeks to spread awareness on the dependency on our food systems, nutrition and health on biodiversity.

Globally, countries have witnessed the disappearance of a number of indigenous crop varieties and medicinal plants, with a corresponding decline in the essential knowledge of traditional medicines and local foods.

The statement noted that Ghana, as a State Party to the Convention for Biological Diversity was equally challenged by the increasing taste for exotic food/medicines at the expense of our indigenous dishes and medicines.

“Even at home, parents were under pressure to serve foreign foods at the expense of our rich and nutritious indigenous dishes made with kontomire, mushrooms and snails, which many oblige in view of their busy schedules”.

The statement said Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, would deliver a keynote address at a forum, to be organised by MESTI with the National Environment Days Planning Committee, at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Accra, to mark the day.

It said there would be an exhibition to showcase innovations of indigenous foods and medicines.

Some of the institutions expected to participate would include stakeholders from Government agencies at the national and local levels, Academia, Private sector, NGOs, Media, and Development Partners.