Bolgatanga, June 18, GNA - Ms Sherry Ayittey, the Minister of Science, Environment and Technology, has called for prudent management of natural resources in the three northern regions to help reduce poverty in the area. She said the area was endowed with natural resources and when harnessed could break the chain of poverty that has crippled the area for centuries. Ms Ayittey, who spoke at a desertification forum in Bolgatanga, expressed regret that instead of managing and conserving biodiversity and the environment, some people in the area rather destroy the environment through charcoal burning, mining, bush burning and pollution of water bodies.

She said the resultant effects are the many sicknesses and diseases that affect community members which adversely affect output of farmers. Ms Ayittey said government would not sit down and allow activities of self-seeking individuals and organizations to degrade the environment. She said lions, leopards, elephants, Chimpanzees among others that used to be found in their numbers and could be used to bait tourists were getting extinct.

Ms. Ayittey said through biodiversity, tourist centres could be developed in the three northern regions to generate jobs and create wealth for the people.

She said District Assemblies could encourage domestication of trees and that they could use at least one per cent of the District Assembly Common Fund to combat desertification.

Ms. Ayittey appealed to traditional authorities to preserve sacred groves and not to allow community members to destroy them. She said it was in her ministry's plans to introduce new technology in the building industry by encouraging the use of local materials such as clay and bamboos which would help to generate jobs. Inaugurating an 11-member Coordinating Committee against desertification in the three northern regions, the Minister appealed to the committee to educate and sensitize communities at the district level on the need to preserve and conserve the environment and the importance of biodiversity.

The Forum which had as its theme "Reversing Desertification Trends for Enhanced Agricultural Productivity and Sustainable livelihoods in Northern Ghana" was organized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo in speech read for him commended the Canadian Government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for its continuous support in combating desertification in the three Northern Regions.