Report by Ben LARYEA
The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Anim has said tremendous progress has been made in relation to the compilation and dissemination of Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in some key areas of the country’s natural resources particularly water, land and forest.
He said compilation have commenced in the said three areas and are working assiduously to put issues and data together to roll out the NCA come next year adding that Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) measures the contributions of the environment to the economy and society as well as its depletion and degradation.
Ghana is implementing NCA program with support from the World Bank Global Program for Sustainability (GPS) in partnership with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and several accounts in these regard are being compiled to better inform policy and decision making to ensure sustainable development.
Speaking at a high-level forum on NCA in Accra, Mr. Samuel Anim said the NCA will create a platform for the Ghana Statistical Service to quantify and measure the value of natural resources and provide also data to assess the contribution of natural capital for the growth and development of the country.
It was organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with support from the World Bank and in attendance were participants from the Ministries, Departments and agencies (MDAs) and development partners.
In an address, the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. John Kumah said the NCA will help make inputs in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which forms part of the effort to ensure that natural capital is integrated into the planning and implementation at all levels of the country.
According to him, the SDGs can be achieved when the key stakeholders and the relevant institutions collectively work together to comprehend the interdependencies and trade-offs between the economy and the environment which will also help support sustainable management of natural resources.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Executive Director of Environmental Protection Agency, Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu said as part of the effort to sustain and manage the country’s natural resources, which data gathering is key and be backed with statistics and can be adequately generated through the NCA.
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Dr. Patrick Nimo who represented the Sector Minister, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie said the NCA will create a platform for stakeholders to have easy access to data in the management and provision of relevant information on the country’s natural resources and ecosystems.
