President John Mahama has outlined environmental measures, including a ban on wooden school furniture and the importation of Styrofoam, as part of efforts to protect natural resources.
Speaking at the World Environment Day celebration in Kwabenya, Accra, the President explained that the decision to ban wooden furniture is aimed at reducing deforestation while promoting sustainable alternatives like recycled plastics and metals.
“We can’t be planting trees and cutting them down at the same time,” President Mahama said. “And so to reduce the cutting of trees, it is my intention to issue a directive to stop the use of wood for school furniture. We’re soon going to pass a directive. School furniture will no longer be made of wood, so that we can stop the cutting down of our trees. We’ll either use recycled plastic or we’ll use metal furniture.”
The President also revealed plans to ban the importation and production of styrofoam, a material commonly used for takeaway food packaging but known for its damaging environmental impact.
“One of the most pernicious polluters is styrofoam plastic,” he said. “When you go to buy your food and they put it in that white plastic something… and then you finish eating, you just dump it. That is one of the biggest polluters. And so we’re going to ban the importation of styrofoam plastics. We have to use paper packaging or aluminium foil for packaging our food.”
He urged producers and importers of styrofoam products to prepare for the transition, stressing that the Ministry of Environment would soon begin enforcement.
On the fight against illegal mining, Mr. Mahama commended the security agencies for reclaiming protected forest zones, revealing that out of nine forest reserves overtaken by illegal miners, eight had already been cleared.
“As I speak, they have seized 300 excavators from illegal miners,” he noted. “Working together with the military and the police, they’ve been able to evict the illegal miners from eight of the no-go zone forest reserves. My understanding is that they’re in the process of liberating the last of the nine red zones,” he noted.
However, he acknowledged that 44 out of Ghana’s 288 forest reserves have been invaded by illegal miners, threatening water sources and biodiversity.
“Our rivers originate from our forests. If we destroy the forests, our rivers will vanish,” he cautioned. “We owe it to future generations to protect the environment they’ll inherit.”
For his part, the Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu announced a new school model set for rollout next year. The initiative, dubbed The Child Beyond Academic Skills, will integrate environmental and civic activities such as tree planting and creative arts into the curriculum.
“I want to assure you that sometime next year, when we review the curricula of our schools, we will introduce under your guidance and leadership a new instructive model which will be the child beyond academic skills,” he said.
“At that time, the child will not be learning literacy or numeracy but will be engaged in some responsible activity, which may be tree planting or it may be painting or something that will grow them as true responsible citizens of our country. So President Mahama next year will have opportunity to launch it and it will be dubbed the child beyond academic skills.” he explained.
