Tamale, Aug. 26, GNA - The government is spending seven million dollars on the Northern Savanna Biodiversity Conservation Project as a step torward to minimising the endemic poverty that has been the bane of Northern Ghana, Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands and Forestry has said.

He said the government is also making efforts to support water harvesting in the Northern Sector to provide the basis for halting desertification and providing local communities with the capacity to grow cash crops.

Prof Fobih, who said these in an address read for him at a day's seminar on the Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP) in Tamale on Monday, said in the 1970s, the Northern Region used to be referred to as "the granary of the country".

"With such an important natural resource base the socio-economic development of the Region and the country would very much depend on how well it is managed."

The Ministry of Lands and Forestry organised the seminar for traditional rulers, representatives of civil society organizations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to provide an overview and rationale for the LAP and solicit stakeholders' opinions and feedback, among other objectives.

Prof. Fobih expressed concern about the management of natural resources in the country and particularly in the Northern Region and said: "We are all witnesses to the rapid deforestation taking place as a result of our own activities.

"These activities have led to the drying up of our water sources. Farms are frequently destroyed during the search for grazing lands by transient herds of cattle. The spate of unauthorised developments in our urban communities is serious and land ownership conflicts keep dogging us", he said.

The Minister said these issues of concern regarding the rapid uncontrolled dissipation of resources moved the government to support the designing of the Ghana Land Administration Programme and the Northern Savannah Biodiversity Conservation Project.

He said LAP is the first phase of a 15 to 20-year programme aimed at poverty reduction, facilitating access to land, enhancing security of tenure to land and improving the institutional arrangements for land management.

Prof Fobih said the government is taking steps to improve forest resource management, developing the capacity of traditional authorities to manage their own lands and making public institutions more efficient. He said as part of the pilot activities of the LAP the Gulkpe-Naa's (Chief of Tamale) land administration set-up would be assisted to improve processes and procedures such that all landowners and acquirers could easily document their land ownership rights.

He said the assistance would be expanded during the Project to cover as many traditional land areas as possible and also help demarcate their land boundaries.

Alhaji Sulemana Mahama, National Coordinator for LAP, said the first five years of the project (Phase I) would aim at developing a sustainable land administration system that would be fair, efficient, decentralised, cost-effective and capable of enhancing land tenure security.

He said the project has been divided into four components, namely, a harmonious policy and legislative framework for sustainable land administration; institutional reform and development; improving land titling, registration, valuation and information systems and project management, monitoring and evaluation.

Alhaji Mahama said to enable the project to take off smoothly some pre-implementation arrangements had been made, which included the setting up of the project secretariat and the training of staff. There is also in place a provision for conducting legislative and institutional studies; preparing project operational manuals; deepening stakeholder consultations and information flow; commencing validation of state and vested lands and piloting the strengthening of customary land secretariats in seven selected areas.

Mr Justice de-Veer, Northern Regional Lands Officer, noted that there is an increasing pressure on limited land resources as a result of rapid expansion of urban land use in both the developed and developing countries. 26 Aug. 03