The Chief Executive (CE) of Forestry Commission (FC),Mr.John Allotey, has urged the youth to be active front-liners in the fight against climate change.
Mr. Allotey said this when he met with a delegation from the Media Foundation for West Africa(MFWA); a group of journalists from across the West African continent, who have taken a special interest in promulgating the right information about climate change.
Mr. Allotey welcomed the group and said that, he was pleased to have granted them audience and happy to see the number of countries represented in the group. He explained that, it is very good to see young Africans showing interest in areas like climate change, which until recently, did not have young and active people at the forefront.
“You need to be active people because you are the leaders today. It is what you do today that influences the environment we will find ourselves in tomorrow. So it is not about you waiting to be future leaders.”
He added that, young people have the capacity to do great things. However, he believes lack of exposure and opportunities hinder some of these capacities.
Mr. Allotey also explained the key mandate of FC, which is to manage and protect both wildlife and forest resources of Ghana.He provided the group with general information about some current activities being undertaken by the Commission.
The spokesperson for the group, Mr. Seth Bokpe , thanked the CE of FC and said , the group believes that, issues of climate change need to be at the forefront of news coverage and should be a critical part of daily conversations because without the environment, human beings can not exist.
He reiterated that, the old adage , “when the last tree dies, the last man dies” is more relevant today because climate change is taking away what is relevant to man.
It is against this background that the MFWA decided to train journalists who will be focused on the climate change conversation and keep it going in the media.
With this mission, it was only laudable to call on the Forestry Commission, he added.
Mr. Allotey responded that, it is good to have journalists who have in-depth knowledge about issues like this because they will be able to report and ask relevant questions when the need arises.
Mr. Thomas Gyambrah from the Climate Change Directorate of FC delivered a presentation on what the Directorate does and some current projects being undertaken. After the presentation , there was an interactive session, with detailed responses from the Director of Climate Change,Ms. Roselyn Fosuah Adjei.
In his concluding statement, Mr. Allotey thanked the group for coming to FC and said FC attaches a lot of importance to the fight against climate change and has therefore, set up a whole directorate to focus on its mitigation.
Therefore, people who are supposed to implement actions in the fight against climate change need people like the journalists who will ask relevant questions and push to get the right information out.
He urged the group to get more information from the website of FC and never hesitate to call on the Climate Change Directorate and FC as a whole whenever they need any information
