Reducing Emissions From Deforestation And Forest Degradation

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One of the SADA afforestation project sites

The National REDD+ Road Show starts at Damongo in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region to create awareness among Ghanaians about its potential to help Ghana to mitigate effects of climate change.

forest conservation
forest conservation

REDD+ is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The Plus sign (+) represents activities that offer co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation, sustainable forest management and carbon stocks enhancement.

A statement issued by the National REDD+ Secretariat Forestry Commission said the Road Show’s first ever event of the forestry sector spans Wednesday, 1st October to Thursday, 2nd October to enable the country to adapt to climate change impacts.

The theme for the Road Show is ?Reducing Forest Loss and Climate Change Impacts through REDD+; Our Collective Responsibility.?

From Damongo, the Road Show moves to Dormaa Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region from Wednesday, 8th to Friday, 10th October, 2014.

The next venue is Tarkwa in the Western Region from Wednesday, 15th to Friday, 17th October, 2014 and Hohoe in the Volta Region from Wednesday, 22nd to Friday, 24th October, 2014.

The REDD+ Road Show event would be climaxed with a National REDD+ Forum in Accra on Friday, 7th November, 2014, at the National Theatre in Accra.

The National REDD+ Road Show event is a country-wide mass communication campaign involving branding of vehicles, endorsement messages, radio discussions, float, road procession, sensitisation of pupils and students, interactions with traditional authorities and local community members, film shows and durbars. The National REDD+ Secretariat of the Forestry Commission is spearheading the campaign.

The purpose is to “sell REDD+” to the Ghanaian populace, drawing attention to unsustainable land-use practices leading to deforestation and forest degradation, and their negative impacts including global warming and loss of livelihood opportunities. The event is further intended to galvanise public support for actions and measures targeted at addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Ghana.

Globally, REDD+ has been recognised as an activity whose successful implementation will help reduce the impacts of climate change particularly in developing countries like Ghana. The preparation towards implementing REDD+ in Ghana, has been on-going since 2007.

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries have committed to provide financial incentives to developing countries that have large tracts of forests to help them to expand, nurture and protect their forests.

This would ensure that forests continue to play their natural roles which include absorption of excess carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere in order to prevent the dangerous warming of the earth. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have established that the continuous releasing of emission of a number of identified gases including carbon dioxide and methane (through mostly human activities) into the atmosphere has resulted in global warming leading to climate change.

The National REDD+ Roadshow Planning Committee, the Forestry Commission and partner institutions urged the general public, particularly residents of the various towns, to participate in the various activities of the REDD+ Road Show. They should come on board, join in the procession and support the battle to save the forests and reduce the impacts of climate change, the statement said.

GNA

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