Ghana needs organic museums for biodiversity conservation

General News on Thursday, May 23, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-05-23

Ghana needs a biological museum to characterize and conserve biodiversity, well identify and protect it for the maintenance of humans, plants, organisms and aquatic life.

Dr. Michael Osae, deputy director at the Institute for Research in Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture, said the country could only conserve its biodiversity when it knew them all.

Biodiversity refers to all the variety of life that can be found on the earth for plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms, as well as for the communities that they form and grow. habitats in which they live.

Mr. Osae said this at a forum organized on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity organized by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Environment. Innovation and its partners in Accra on Wednesday.

The national theme of the day was: "Promotion of our indigenous foods and medicines; a catalyst for the realization of the agenda beyond the help of Ghana "while the global theme was; "Our biodiversity, our food, our health".

Dr. Osae called for strict enforcement of closed seasons of fishing and hunting, adding that it was necessary to avoid the intensive use of agrochemicals and drugs. insecticides, which damage biodiversity, especially food and medicine.

"There is a saying that says," Eat your food as a medicine, otherwise you will eat your medicine as a food "and that means that what we eat contributes enormously to our health, while drugs contribute to our well-being, "he said.

He also advised the public to refrain from unnecessarily destroying organisms such as termites and bees, as some of them were pollinators and served as organic materials to make the land fertile for food production .

"As a country, we have not preserved our biodiversity with the imbalances we create in our ecosystem, nor have we worried about what goes into the country. We are focusing mainly on what is coming out of the country so as not to destroy our positions in the international market, "he said.

He recommended that structures and measures be put in place at ports of entry to detect items that may be hazardous to the country's biodiversity and food.

Professor Mary Obodai, director of the Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), said that one study had revealed that more than 90% of varieties of Food had disappeared in the last 100 years, while half of many domestic products. the animals had been lost.

She noted that locally varied food production systems are threatened by the loss of agricultural biodiversity, as well as essential knowledge about traditional medicines and local animal feed.

There was an urgent need to develop and promote synergies and strategies to reverse the force that emphasized the positive role of restoring food biodiversity for human nutrition and poverty alleviation. she said.

Professor Obodai said the CSIR is developing methods to create and maintain the indigenous agricultural development ecosystem to increase the resilience of local food systems, while ensuring food security and safety. while promoting the health and economic stability of future generations.

She revealed that the CSIR also conducts market-based scientific and technological research on food to address issues in the food value chain, from source to processing, to processing.

Dr. Kofi Donkor, a research scientist at the Plant Medicine Research Center, Mampong Akuapem, said that herbal medicine had a lot to gain if it received the necessary attention and that in 2016, the only thing that could be done was to have it. industry had made an estimated contribution of $ 71 billion to the world. economy.

He called on practitioners of medicinal herbs to stop cutting plants, only to obtain medicines, but instead to resort to the cultivation of medicinal plants to generate more income for the country.

He suggested creating a model plant allowing practitioners of herbal medicine to manufacture their products and sell them locally, and then export to reduce the foreign drug import rate and budget allocation. to health.

Nana Kwadwo Obiri, general secretary of the Association of Practitioners of Traditional Medicine of Ghana, called on the government to ensure that herbal medicines are included in the list of medicines for health insurance. national.

He said: "If they want us to stop advertising our medications in the media, then they should put traditional herbal medicines into the national health insurance plan," she said. he declared.