Strategic Communications Africa Ltd, (Stratcomm Africa) has launched the 2015 Ghana Garden and Flower Show aimed at placing value on the importance of gardens and flowers in the environment.

The third edition of the show, which is slated for September 10 to 14, is themed: “The World is Your Garden” and it would be held at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra.

Local and international exhibitors, flower experts, subsistence gardeners, pot makers, sculptors, florists, landscape owners and real estate developers would be participating in the Show, which would also feature workshops and seminars for participants to share ideas and insights about environmental planning.

Mr Mahama Ayariga, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, who launched the Show, commended Stratcomm Africa for initiating the Show that sought to make the country greener, while projecting the need for a sustainable and clean environment.

“Our overall national environment improves as we each brighten our little corner, as we plant gardens and flowers around us to beautify our surroundings, as we take all the needed steps to make our environment healthy and safe,” he said.

He said after the June 3 Flood Disaster, there was more urgency to the task of planning healthy and safe environments and insisting on respect for environmental laws and regulations.

He said: “We must avoid the impression that enforcement of such laws and regulations is an infliction of harm on some individuals, when in fact we are seeking to protect the good of all.”

Mr Ayariga, therefore, called on all individuals, businesses, professional bodies and the state as a whole to develop strategies that comprehensively saved people from such disasters, primarily by ensuring that the conditions which made people suffer catastrophic consequences were not created.

He said the sector Ministry and the Environmental Protection Agency were working together to ensure that the country took seriously, the law and regulations governing how and where “we undertake human activities that, if not well planned, can create future problems for us”.

Ms Esther Cobbah, the Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa, said the Garden and flower show was introduced to stimulate interest of the nation in the various opportunities that the sector provided as well as opportunities that had been really neglected in Ghana.

She said countries like Holland and Kenya had generated tremendous value from the flower business and were earning billions of dollars from exporting flowers and plants, adding that, her organisation was working to ensure that Ghana also utilised such opportunities.

Ms Cobbah said since flowers and gardens played critical role in protecting the environment, it was important to take the responsibility of maintaining a clean and beautiful environment in order for us to live longer and healthier lives.

Ms Marcia Azu, an assistant manager in charge of Brand Communication of Stratcomm, explained that the vision of the Garden and Flower movement was “of a Ghana as a country where every community is clean, green and beautiful place to live in”.

She, therefore, urged the public to embrace the vision and be part of the movement.