Climate change is affecting our rights and livelihoods - Adarkwa

By Regina Benneh, GNA

Abesim (BA), Oct. 21, GNA- Mr Stephen Adarkwa, an Administrative Assistant of the Ghana Permaculture Institute at Techiman in the Bono East Region, has said climate change is a major global concern affecting human rights and livelihoods.

He said the situation is affecting the sustainability of the environment adding that it is unsafe for the survival of humankind because it was increasing the state of food insecurity all over the world.

Mr Adarkwa said this when he spoke on the topic: “The Cause, Effect and the Way Forward for Climate Change Mitigation” at  a regional forum on climate change as part of the  Bono Regional Celebration of this year’s International  Day of Rural Women at Abesim, near Sunyani.

Organized by the ActionAid Ghana, the one day programme was held under the theme: “Rural Women and Girls Building Climate Resilience through Agro Ecology”.

It brought together stakeholders to discuss the impact of climate change and its influence on the livelihoods of women farmers and proposed strategies to reduce the impact.

It was attended by 37 participants that consisted of smallholder women farmers and selected staff of the Regional Directorates of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture drawn from the Bono, Bono East and the Ahafo regions.

Mr Adarkwa said climate change, caused by the depletion of the ozone layer, has become a primary responsibility of everyone, hence the need for all to take steps to mitigate the challenge.

The decrease in crop production, rise in temperature, extreme droughts, erratic rainfall patterns and heavy rainfalls experienced in the country nowadays were the consequences of climate change, he said.

He urged the public to cultivate the habit of planting trees in and around their environment to replenish degraded forests which are the result of the indiscriminate cutting of trees by illegal chainsaw operators.

Mr Adarkwa said this would prevent the occurrence of heavy windstorms and excessive rainfalls which are placing the lives of the population in danger and also urged farmers to go into organic farming.

The participants in a consensus called for the widening of the sensitisation on climate change effects to get everybody on board the campaign.

They said there should be a continuous education on the effects of climate change to farmers, industrial workers and the general public to get a clear picture of the climate change situation and its attendant dangers.

“ActionAid is global justice Federation working to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication. Throughout the world, ActionAid works to strengthen the capacity and active agency of people living in poverty and exclusion, especially women, to assert their rights.

ActionAid works directly with communities, with people’s organisations, women’s movements, groups and networks, social movement s and other allies to overcome the structural causes and consequences of poverty and injustice. ActionAid has been working in Ghana for the past 26 years and its work in the Brong-Ahafo Region is now 19 years.”

GNA

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