Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper West Regional Minister, has appealed to traditional authorities, especially landowners to consider women with access to land and land rights to encourage large scale restoration and sustainable management of degraded lands.
He said adequate access to land by women and securing legal rights to them could lead to an increase in food production and sustainable agricultural practices, using modern technologies, to help reduce the prevalence of desertification and drought.
He noted that discrimination against women regarding access to land and land rights had discouraged many of them from adopting sustainable farming practices and accepting technologies to improve agricultural production.
Dr Bin Salih made the appeal during the region’s celebration of the 2023 World Day to combat desertification and drought, held in Wa, on the theme: “Her land, her Rights: Advancing gender equality and land restoration goals”.
The event was organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council, to raise public awareness of the benefits of gender equality on the adoption of land restoration measures and to encourage stakeholders’ participation in land restoration and sustainable land management to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought.
It was also to raise public awareness of the underlying causes of desertification and drought, highlighting efforts that were being made to combat these challenges, and inspire stakeholders to support the advancements of women’s land rights.
Dr Bin Salih said the core environmental challenges of the region had been land degradation and the threat of desertification, endangering the ecosystem and resulting in food insecurity.
He mentioned illegal mining activities, unsustainable farming practices, population pressures, deforestation, bushfires and the misapplication of agrochemicals among others, as factors impacting negatively on the ecosystem.
“This challenge has been a source of worry to the leadership of the region, because the majority of our people are into agricultural production for survival and livelihoods,” he lamented.
The Regional Minister appealed to traditional rulers to implement sanctions and byelaws, to discourage bushfires and the wanton felling of trees for charcoal production to protect the environment from further degradation.
“Together we must adopt sustainable approaches to climate and land management, to enhance livelihoods and improve food security to reduce poverty among our people,” he said.
Mr Emmanuel Lignule, the Acting Upper West Regional Director of EPA, said desertification and drought were global environmental challenges that affect socioeconomic development.
He said desert conditions served as challenges to socioeconomic development in ways such as declining supply of wood, and non-wood forest products for various uses, low agricultural yields, leading to poverty and deepening of gender inequality.
In that regard, he suggested the proper use and management of land in ways that would prevent degradation and desertification.
Desertification refers to land degradation in dry areas because of climatic variation and human activities, while land degradation is the reduction or loss of the biological and economic productivity of land because of land uses or processes resulting from human activities.
GNA
