Deputy Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Calls for Action to Protect WAP.
Deputy Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Mima Yema Sobba-Stephens has called on stakeholders notably, Headmen, Councilors and other partners to take strong actions to protect the Western Area Peninsula for protecting globally important biodiversity, maintaining essential ecosystem services, and supporting both local and national socio-economic development.
She made this disclosure at the Waterloo District Council Hall, Ward C, during a meeting with various stakeholders on the Sustainable Integrated Landscape Management of the Western Area Peninsula (WAP) Project being implemented by Tacugama with support from Global Environment Facility #GEF and United Nations Development Programme #UNDP.
The purpose of the town hall meeting was to raise awareness among community stakeholders, councilors, MDAs on the environmental protection, and preservation of WAP biodiversity.
Delivering the keynote statement, Hon. Sobba-Stephens acknowledged that WAP is not just a stretch of land filled with trees, hills and rivers, but is the heartbeat of our environment that is providing us with clean water, fresh air, fertile soil, and a home for many unique plants and animals. She noted that some speices are found nowhere else in the world, which makes the peninsula a globally important biodiversity hotspot.
Consequently, she affirmed that the peninsula is under serious threats with consistent indiscriminate cutting of trees, land been cleared for housing, waste been dumped at places that should remain clean and green. She maintained that these odd actions are damaging the very foundation that supports our lives.
“When we destroy the forest, we are not only losing trees but we are losing the natural systems that protect us. Forest helps store carbon, keeps our environment cooler and reduces the effect of climate change” she stated.
Hon. Sobba-Stephens recognized the significance of the peninsula forest, nothing that it protect our watershed by ensuring people have clean water to drink, prevent land degradetion by ensuring our land does not dry and become infertile for farming.She emphasized that all and sundry must aim for land degradetion neutrality which in essence, everyone must ensure that the amount of land been damaged should be balanced by the amount of land been restored by planting trees so that the soil would remain healthy.
She unequivocally said that the “Sustainable and Integrated Landscape Management of WAP Project” means collaboration among government institutions, traditional leaders, local communities, NGOs and indidvidual to use the land efficiently without destroying it for future generations.
Hon. Stephens acknowledged that there should be consistent awareness raising for stakeholders to understand the significance of protecting WAP; promote sustainable livelihood by encouraging fishing, farming and building practices that do not posed threats to the peninsula forest, strengthing community participation by encouraging youths, women among others to protect and manage the natural resources, enforce environmental laws to stop illegal logging, sand minning, encroahment, restore degraded land by planting trees clean up waterways and protect wildlife habitats.
“Protection of WAP signifies that we are protecting ourselves, securing the water supply, improving the country’s climate, supporting tourism and local jobs” Hon. Stephens affirmed. She emphasized for stakeholders to comit themselves as guardian of WAP by speaking out, taking action, working together to keep it green, healthy and productive