Tamale, Feb. 8, GNA - Mr Jonathan Allotey, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday called on Ghanaians to avoid acts that would continue to endanger the country's land and water sources.

He said, "land and water sources are the only things the nation could bequeath to its future generations, therefore, there is the need to prevent acts such as indiscriminate bush burning, over grazing and other social activities that tend to degrade the environment. Mr Allotey made the call at a day's validation workshop on the Third Report to the "United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification" in Tamale on Monday.

The forum was on the theme: "Mainstreaming Land Degradation Issues into National Development Plans".

The EPA organised the workshop to create a forum for participants across the country to deliberate on ways and means to address some of the problems associated with land and the environment. The workshop which was attended by 40 participants was also aimed at tackling land tenure issues and sustainable management as a case study in Northern Ghana.

Mr Allotey said the environment was the country's heritage and stressed the need to protect it and advised people living along water sources to use the resource judiciously to prevent erosion.

Naa Abubakari Von Salifu, chief of Tuya, a village near Tamale who chaired the function called on traditional rulers and other opinion leaders to take a second look at the cultural aspects of land degradation in the country and institute stiffer punishment to those who would violate the laws on land.

He said the economic fortunes of the country would continue to dwindle if Ghanaians did not change their attitude for the better, with regards to the management of land and water.