Cape Coast, Feb.6, GNA- The acting Executive Director of the Ghana Wildlife Society (GWS), Dr Erasmus Owusu, on Thursday urged hunters in the country to stop killing endangered animal species and adhere to the rules and regulations governing Ghana wildlife conservation. He stressed that there was the need for Ghanaians to change their attitudes and perceptions about the management of the environment to ensure its sustainability.

Mr Owusu was addressing a day's 'conservation workshop' for security personnel in the Central Region as part of the society's educational programme to educate people on the need to protect the environment and wildlife for sustainability.

He pointed out that defaulting hunters, were liable for prosecution, and regretted that the rate at which the country's biodiversity was being depleted, left much to be desired and that if care was not taken certain endangered animal and plant species "would be lost forever".

He said apart from endangered species of animals and plants being depleted in the country's forests, wetlands that are of biological importance were also being encroached upon by developers and stressed that the issue, was a great concern to the society.

In a speech read for him, the Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Muniru Arafat Nuhu, also underscored the importance of biodiversity to the existence of man and observed that a total of 11,046 plants and animals have been discovered to becoming extinct.

He said an estimated 384,000 tonnes of bush meat worth 350 million dollars are harvested in Ghana annually, contributing to the hunting of endangered species.

Mr. Nuhu also mentioned deforestation, excessive emission of exhaust fumes of old vehicles, and "the overwhelming" in-sanitary conditions in the cities as some of the problems hindering effective protection of biodiversity .

Mr. Joseph Kwasi Binlinla, Assistant Wildlife Officer of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, was unhappy that the attitude of some personnel of the law enforcement agencies did not encourage the division to arrest poachers.

He claimed that while some poachers were arrested without the knowledge of personnel of the division, other cases sent to the courts were also adjourned several times.

Mr. Nkunu Akyea, Executive Director of the Ghana Heritage Conservation Trust who chaired the function, asked all hunters to acquire licences from the Wildlife Division, and practice within the confines of the law.

Participants called for the amendment of the wildlife conservation regulations law to ensure stiffer punishment to poachers.