From Hannah Asomaning, GNA Special Correspondent, Pittsburgh, USA

Pittsburgh, USA, June 13, GNA - Twenty-two Ghanaian professionals and students from the University of Ghana (UG), working on environmental related issues, on Sunday arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the US, to participate in an exchange programme with the University of Duquesne. The programme aims at training emerging leaders to effectively manage complex environmental and social challenges that result from extraction or mining of natural resources such as oil or minerals.

Dr George Wiafe, Lecturer at the Oceanography Department of the UG and Co-ordinator of the programme, said at a pre-departure meeting that the programme would also highlight best practices in terms of managing the extractive industries in the two countries and urged the participants to be open to new ideas.

Participants will spend four weeks in the United States working alongside their counterparts to explore the challenges faced in the Marcellus Shale gas extraction project in Western Pennsylvania. The programme funded by the US would also enable the UG to host their counterparts next year.

Dr Wiafe said the exchange experience would focus on the leadership of public interest groups, implications of environmental governance, land management and natural resource use.

Participants will also examine the differences in the systems of land management in Ghana and the US and how they impact on the social, economic and environmental development of both countries. 13 June 10