Accra, Aug. 3, GNA - Professor Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Deputy Director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Relations (CSIR), on Thursday emphasized the importance of biodiversity as the basis for life on earth and called for its sustenance.

Prof Oteng-Yeboah, who is also in-charge of Environment and Health, said the rich forest reserves that served as habitats for both animals and trees were currently undergoing various forms of exploitation leading to their total destruction.

He called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sit up and work at determining the right mitigation measures and technologies for exploitation, without compromising the destruction of such enviable environment.

Prof Oteng-Yeboah, who chaired a press briefing on the dissemination of research findings on the current biodiversity status of the Atewa Forest Reserve in the Eastern Region, urged the Government to take a careful look at the scientific findings to enable it to make the right decisions when developing national objectives.

The research, which was conducted by Conservation International (CI), a nongovernmental organisation (NGO), at the Atewa Forest Reserve at the request of ALCOA, a bauxite mining company, which was currently exploring for bauxite in the forest, came out with some sterling discoveries of new species of both plants and animals.

Prof Oteng-Yeboah noted that Ghana was blessed with rich natural resources, made up of different species of micro-organisms, plants, animals, ecosystems and ecological processes that provided the basis for life for various communities and needed to be protected from destructive exploitation.

He noted how mining activities had made devastating impact on certain communities and called on the Government to ensure careful preparatory study to prevent recurrence. He expressed the hope that similar researches would be replicated in other potential mining areas to promote environmentally responsible mining practices in Ghana.

Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei, Country Director of CI, said it was important to ensure the harmonization of the co-existence of both man and nature in the face of current national development.

He said the research was to provide the Government and other agencies, as well as communities with quality scientific data on the state of the nation's natural resources so as to determine the right mitigation measures and technology for the exploitation without compromising the destruction of such enviable environment. Okyeame-Ampadu-Agyei stated that the premier stock assessment of its biological diversitythat started with the Newmont Gold Mining Company before exploitation was commendable and had opened the gates for further stocktaking of the country's forest reserves. He explained that the survey focused on eight key indicators of biodiversity health of the Atewa Forest, which included plants, insects, fish, amphibians, birds, bats, large mammals and primates. Okyeame-Ampadu-Agyei said new species of amphibians, dragonflies, bats and butterflies were discovered.

He said though a large part of the Forest Reserve was intact, other parts were found to be under severe threats from activities including illegal logging, excessive hunting and the conversion of habitats into farms by neighbouring villagers, adding that such activities had led to the decline of certain animal species.

He appealed to the Government to ensure the maintenance of such reserves "if earth's natural heritage must be maintained for future generations to thrive spiritually, culturally and economically". Conservation International presented a cheque for one hundred million cedis, being final instalment of one billion cedis it pledged to the Forestry Services Division, to help it in its activities. Two copies of the report were given to the Deputy Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Mr Andrews Adjei-Yeboah.