‘Integrated research needed to minimise dangers of climate change’
Stakeholders at a forum on climate change adaptation have called for integrated research approaches to help minimise the dangers of climate change on human lives and properties.
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They were of the view that instead of tackling only an aspect of climate change, there was the need to incorporate established approaches, such as environmental and developmental challenges, social, ecological and economic in order to bring the situation under control.
The forum, held in Accra yesterday, was to mark the end of a five-year project titled: “Climate and Ecosystem Change Adaptation and Resilience Research (CECAR) Africa.”
The programme was organised by the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, College of Basic and Applied Sciences of the University of Ghana, Legon, and the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IRSSS) of the University of Tokyo under the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The stakeholders, drawn from academia, research institutions, policy makers, civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Ghana, deliberated on how to minimise climate change and educate Ghanaians on climate change adaptation.
Holistic approach
Briefing the media after the closing session, the Chairman of the CECAR Project, Prof. Chris Gordon, said the project sought to ensure that members of communities where it was carried out adopted modern ways of minimising climate change.
“In helping to reduce climate change, you consider a holistic approach in order to save human lives, as well as protect properties,” he said.
Prof. Gordon stated that the project would go a long way to solve many of the problems affecting people in the northern part of the country, adding that there were plans to scale it up to other parts of the country.
“The project was able to establish that there is the need to bring integrated factors, including traditional knowledge, parallel relationships between the various social groups, gender and migration, together to help reduce the debilitating effect of climate change on the ecosystem,” he added.
Long-term goals of CECAR Project
The Director of the CECAR Africa Project, Prof. Kazuhito Takeuchi, indicated that the project had the long-term goal of providing members of the community with enough knowledge on climate change resilience.
“The project examines resilience from the perspective of rural communities with the engagement and participation of relevant stakeholders at the local, district, regional and national levels, in particular targeting northern Ghana,” he said.