The ICT Department in partnership with the Wildlife Division (WD) held a webinar on the theme “Leveraging on ICT to promote Ecotourism for Development” . The program aimed to elicit discussions on strategies that can bring benefits to the Forestry Commission (FC) and the country at large.
The Deputy Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Nyadia Sulemana Nelson, in a welcome address lauded the many efforts of the ICT Department in developing innovative and revolutionary technologies, solutions and systems to assist Divisions, Departments and Units of FC in executing its duties and mandates. However, many of the innovations are not embraced and used by staff, he added.
He therefore, tasked the ICT Department to find out workable solutions to push staff to adopt these innovative technologies in their work.
The Deputy CE equally encouraged them to partner and collaborate with the private sector, so that these technological solutions could generate revenue streams for the Commission’s use and development.
The Director of Stakeholder and Ecotourism, WD, Dr Richard Gyimah , mentioned that the date for the webinar was timely in that it happened just around when the World Tourism Day (WTD) was celebrated in Ada and explained that the observance of the WTD highlights the vital need to deliver investment for projects that work for people, planet and posterity.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization “(UNWTO) has identified investments as a key priority for the sector, serving as the bridge between its Member States, destinations, businesses and investors, culminating in World Tourism Day 2023. It is a call to action to the international community, governments, multilateral financial institutions, development partners and private sector investors to unite around a new tourism investment strategy”, he clarified.
Dr Gyimah called on all to patronize tourism services and experiences in Ghana, including FC’s Protected Areas and Zoos in line with the President of Ghana’s vision of promoting domestic tourism.
The Director of ICT, Dr Joseph Adu-Mintah, enumerated several ways through which ICT contributes to promoting and enhancing sustainable ecotourism, among which are Information Dissemination, Environmental Monitoring, Market Access and Promotion, Navigation and Mapping, Carbon Footprint Reduction and providing Data-driven Analysis and Decision.
He thus called for more collaboration and partnership with the Department to bring out more innovative solutions and systems to aid the Commission’s work and operations.
The Manager for Emerging Technologies of the ICT Department , Mr. Emmanuel Opoku, gave a presentation on ‘ICT Research on Ecotourism’ and another one by ICT Officer, Ms Yvette Ameyibor on ‘Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for Bird Watching’.
As part of the programme, panel members, Dr Richard Gyimah, Mr Emmanuel Opoku and Ms Steffi Manu of the Corporate Affairs and Media Relations Unit, gave further insights into the theme of the webinar in a discussion session which was moderated by ICT Officer, Mr Ebenezer Addo.
The programme earlier kick-started with a digital exhibition of ecotourism sites, artifacts and related education and information put together by the WD Public Relations Unit and Commercial Development Unit Team.