Accra, May 24, GNA - The Ghana Wildlife Society in partnership with Birdlife International and wildlife clubs of Ghana on Saturday celebrated the World Migratory Bird Day and appealed to world leaders to protect sites required by migratory birds. The theme for the celebration was "Migratory Birds- Ambassadors for Biodiversity" and drew attention to the link between migratory birds and wider biodiversity as well as the overall state of the environment. Dr. Paulinus Chiambeng Ngeh, West African Coordinator of wildlife, said Ghana was joining thousands of individuals, non- governmental organizations and government institutions around the world to celebrate the day.

He said the day was an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting migratory birds, their importance and the need for their conservation. "Birds are beautiful, inspirational, an excellent flagship and vital environmental indicators for the status and trends of wider biodiversity as they connect and are inhabitants of virtually all the ecosystems in the world". Dr. Ngeh said it was estimated that five billion birds travelled seven to eight thousand kilometres from north breeding grounds to African wintering grounds and there was the need to focus on these migratory birds because they intensified agriculture in their breeding areas.

He said Ghana had a lot of wetlands and natural habitats which served as stopover sites for the migratory birds but there were indications of their decline because of environmental problems linked to the loss of habitats and biodiversity worldwide. He called for stepping up of environmental education programmes, promotion of ecological restoration of wetlands and the enforcement of laws to prevent people from developing wetlands for buildings. As part of programmes marking the day, students from the Wildlife Club of Ghana and the Wildlife Society paid a visit to the Sakumono Ramsar site to see some of the birds and also watched a film on the migratory routes of the birds and how thousands of bird species spend their wintering grounds at the site. The birds, who normally migrated from Europe between September and April, include the Partincole, the Grey Plove, the Spur wind Plore and the Black Wing stilts. 24 May 08