'Participate in environmental issues'

Page 19: Daily Graphic, August 27, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A DIRECTOR at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Samuel D. Anku, says citizen participation in environmental issues will be greatly enhanced if there is access to information law to enhance accessibility to environmental information.
That way, he said, citizen’s participation in decision-making processes on the environment would not only be effective but also maintain trust and confidence between the government and the citizens.
“Confidentiality of information on grounds of national security provide a broad cloak while repressive measures for wrongful disclosure by government officials and the lack of sanctions for failure to provide access do not encourage access to information,” he noted.
Mr Anku, who is a Director of Intersectoral Networks Division at the EPA, was speaking at a round-table discussion on “Our environment, our economy, our democracy,” in Accra.
He said the passage of the Right to Information Bill would strengthen citizen access to environmental information.
It was organised by the Governance Africa Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.
He said for public participation to be effective, the local people must understand the concepts of environmental democracy in order to be able to contribute to the decision-making process.
He stressed the need for the government to firmly legalise statutory environmental committees at the decentralised levels and assure their effective and proactive functioning with a broad environmental scope.
“These decentralised structures should play a key role in planning, monitoring, early warning and information management,” he said.
Mr Anku said as Ghana strove to implement poverty reduction and environmental sustainability strategies, strong mechanisms for implementation of access rights could help create new economic opportunities for poor people and promote equity and social justice.
He said when citizens were conscious of their rights, they were able to demand accountability and responsibility on the part of their government.
In a welcoming address, the Executive Director of the Governance Africa Foundation, Mr Kwaku Baa Owusu, noted that Ghana, just like other countries, would have to exploit its resources to sustain itself and to ensure the well-being of its people.
He, however, said that exploitation must be done within a framework that did not compromise the sanctity of Article 36 (9) of the 1992 Constitution.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffour, said the threat of climate change was real and had the potential of adversely affecting Ghana’s plans for sustainable economic growth, food security and the health of the citizenry.
He said the negative impacts of climate change could undermine the government’s plans and assumptions on economic growth, health, social protection, agriculture, fisheries and trade.
“With careful planning and commitment, however, some of the damaging effects of climate change can be reduced and positive changes can be turned to economic advantage,” he said.
Dr Duffour said the ministry would seek economic benefits from climate mitigation by adopting innovative approaches in collaboration with other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to trapping carbon through conservation of existing forests, rehabilitating former forest areas and developing new plantations.
Such measures, he said, should bring their own financial rewards by enabling investors to obtain carbon credits on the commercial market.