African Adaptation Programme to dialogue with high level persons on climate change
Mr Winfrey Nelson, Coordinator of African Adaptation Programme (AAP), a United Nations programme to help address climate change issues in Africa, on Monday said a lot had been done in terms of education and awareness creation on climate change issues even though the impact was low.
He said the AAP Office in Ghana therefore planned to meet and dialogue with high level people in Ghana to discuss climatic issues and how to get people at the grassroots involved.
“We plan to dialogue with the coalition of Civil Society Organisations, Parliamentarians, Chief Directors, and Ministers of State,” he said.
Mr Nelson told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that AAP had for instance supported Walewale, a village in the Mamprusi West District with a pumping machine to enable them engage in dry season farming.
He explained that Walewale experienced two extreme weather conditions, during the dry season the river dried up beyond recognition while in the rainy season the whole area was flooded such that they had to access their farms with canoes.
Mr Nelson said through the AAP the community now planted mango trees on the bank of the river to reduce the impact of climate variations on their farming activities.
The afforestation (planting of trees) on major river banks, he explained, served as buffer zones of vegetation between the river‘s edge and the areas that were farmed.
He said the AAP had conducted a scoping and impact study in some key sectors to identify the existing climate change adaptation interventions and gaps.
The study was aimed at providing baseline data on adaptation in the sectors studied.
Mr Nelson pointed out that a study on indigenous knowledge (IK) on climate change adaptation had been conducted in six different districts across the country.
The study, he said, documented existing indigenous adaptive mechanisms and practices of the local people and the use of existing knowledge to help plan and implement appropriate adaptation activities for the people in the study areas.
Source: GNA