Ghana is engaging with stakeholders to achieve sustainable national ocean governance and management practices.
This enthusiasm is linked to Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 6 aimed at improving ocean health, said the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI).
“Ocean tides are changing dramatically, hence the need to generate newer and deeper waves of enthusiasm to cherish and protect our ocean and our entire blue planet,” the ministry said in a statement released Thursday to the Ghana News Agency.
Ms. Ophelia Mensah Hayford, Minister of the sector, signed the statement released ahead of the commemoration of World Oceans Day on Saturday, June 8.
June 8 was set aside each year to reflect the importance of the ocean to all forms of life on earth.
MESTI said in line with the declaration made by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the 2023 National Summit on Our Blue Economy, this year’s celebration must serve as a wake-up call to Ghanaians to explore new depths to deepen strategic partnerships. among the stakeholders.
“As individuals, institutions, communities and a nation, we are therefore called to come together to explore new depths to manage, protect and sustain our ocean to achieve a bluer, safer and better way of life », Underlined the minister.
This year’s celebration, themed: “Awakening New Depths,” aims to promote public awareness and action for sustainable ocean management.
MESTI said that the commemoration, among other things, would thus seek to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean and to generate enthusiasm among citizens for the protection of the ocean.
“For us in Ghana, in celebrating this Day, the government, through the Ministry, in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other key stakeholders, would like to re-emphasize the need to protect and restore the world’s oceans that connect us all. .”
The ministry said it has intensified efforts to increase public education and awareness on sustainable ocean management practices, facilitate dialogues on various topics including the ocean-climate nexus, science and innovation, capacity building, biodiversity, traditional and local knowledge.
The declaration reminds citizens that all forms of life on earth, including human life, depend on water.
“Even though the ocean is incredibly huge and we are entirely dependent on it, we have only studied about 10 percent of it, so very little is known about it in its entirety – the impacts or effects of actions humans remain a mystery.
“However, it is well known that the ocean is in grave danger,” the statement noted.
He insisted that the ocean should be the priority as studies are carried out to discover how much more valuable it is than it seems.
It is important to preserve the health of the oceans by reflecting on past actions and establishing new measures that would restore the oceans to balance.
“It is imperative to generate a new wave of enthusiasm to cherish and protect the ocean, and breathe new life into it by taking action on a local and global scale, inspiring change in our management and use of the world’s oceans. world,” he said.
It is important to build a progressive coalition to improve the health of the oceans and accelerate the development of our coastal communities and the country as a whole.
