Accra, Jan 24, GNA - Participants at a just-ended workshop on environment have called for adequate measures to be put in place to sustain the environment to avoid the creation of an environmental genocide.

The environmentalists said if nothing was done, Ghana's developmental efforts, which depended so much on the environment, would be meaningless.

"Sustainable development hinges on these pillars, economic, social and environment", they indicated in their submissions at the workshop. The environmentalists, including Mr Jonathan Allotey, the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Professor Alfred A. Oteng Yeboah, Deputy Director General, Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Mr Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, Editor of the Daily Graphic acknowledged the environment as both a heritage and economic asset.

Environmental journalists from Accra and other regional capitals attended the two-day workshop, organised by the Earth Service, an environmental non-governmental organisation.

The workshop, which was on the theme: "The Media, Awareness Creation and Sustainable Development" was aimed at educating the journalists on environmental issues.

Professor Oteng Yeboah said the environment was now under serious threat, particularly in the area of land use as well as the population growth.

All these, he said, had adverse effect on bio-diversity, the different kinds of living orgasms, which had polluted the environment. He therefore called for the political will to adopt and implement sound policies that would help protect the environment from continuous depletion and degradation.

Mr Ayeboafo urged journalists to be careful with their environmental reportage so as not to create unnecessary tension. He said they should always seek expert's opinion and explanations to issues and also be able to understand such issues first before they inform the public.