Climate
Change and Bush Fires in Ghana: How to Protect Our Cultural Heritage
By Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath
 |
| Bush Fires ravaging a Forest in Ghana |
An African proverb admonishes: “When
you see a tweak coming towards your face, you don’t wait for it to pierce your
eyes before you break it.”
Nowadays, everybody is talking
about climate change. To some people it may sound like a cliché. When the term
is mentioned at first hearing, people in the developing world have the tendency
to imagine that climate change is a phenomenon peculiar only to industrialised
nations. Well, there may be some silhouette of truth in that line of thinking,
though. It is because the advanced nations are noted for being the originators
and worst offenders of climate change and global warming confronting mankind
today.
This is due to ubiquitous Green
House Emissions (GHEs) and other technological activities they embarked upon at
the dawn of industrial revolution for economic gains. Indeed, they are the worst
offenders but the reality is that we in the developing countries are at the
receiving end of the consequences of climate change today. So, it is in our own
interest not to stand and stare. And some of us will continue talking of climate
change until thy Kingdom come because it is real like the night follows the
day.
The object of this article is not
to lecture anybody about the theory of climate change. Rather, to attempt to
put a finger on one or two practical causes of climate change that is dealing
deadly blows not only to our environment but also devastating cultural heritage
and tourist attractions in our beloved country Ghana. They are bush fires!
Shall we say that bush fires “have
been with man since Adam?” But what is becoming more alarming is the fact that
it is becoming unbecoming since the beginning of this year. For example, Ghana
National Fire Service records indicate that within the first two weeks of
January 2016, over 114 fire outbreaks have occurred in the Ashanti Region
alone. Sources at the Service intimated that that figure represented over 50
per cent of 219 cases registered for the whole of January 2015.
Furthermore,
as of January 11, statistics showed that eight incidents were the results of
vehicles which caught fire in road accidents. Domestic fires for the same
period were 39 while industrial fires accounted for 5. Shockingly, bush fires
topped the league table with 55 ravaging ones during the same period.
When
we talk of bush fires we are talking of total destruction of forest reserves like
the Achimota Forest in Accra. Then farm
lands with cash and food crops that are devastated, not to mention the ravaging
of entire villages with human casualties.
But
what jolted my conscience to write this article was media reports that bush
fires have ravaged the vegetation of Afadjato in the Volta Region. Such a
monumental national cultural heritage and tourist attraction could be destroyed
by bush fires in a twinkling of eyes? What was more annoying was the cause of
that fire being firecrackers ignited by some irresponsible and stubborn
tourist? And we sit down as a nation leaking our wounds? It is only in Ghana
such a thing can be tolerated.
Can any Ghanaian tourist go to
Egypt to set those ancient Pyramids ablaze? Can any Ghanaian tourist visit
Kenya or Zimbabwe or Tanzania and set their national parks with all their
animals ablaze? We Ghanaians are so lousy, selfish, and egoistic with
lackadaisical attitude towards things that do not belong to us as private
individuals. Our sense of nationalism or patriotism has been scarified on the
altar of partisan politics. What a shame!
It would be recalled that when
President Mahama recently went to the Volta Region, he called on Togbe Afede
XIV, Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, and expressed concern about bush
fires. In fact the President compared this year’s bush fires to those of 1983
when farms were destroyed leading to severe famine and starvation due to
harmatan conditions. It is unfortunate that the Hohoe Municipal authorities,
Traditional rulers and the people living in the Afadjato vicinity could not
prevent bush fires from devastating that God-given heritage to them and the
nation.
At the national level one wonders
whether the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, the Ghana Tourist
Board and others have any national policy in place to protect and preserve
Ghana’s cultural heritage and tourist attractions nationwide. Today, it is
Afadjato. Tomorrow, which national park will be the next to be set ablaze?
Where are the tourist police? Or there is nothing like that to ensure the
security of all national heritage and tourist attractions in the country?
In 2004 this author was
privileged to have visited Singapore for the first time for a short training
course. While there, as part of the
programme, participants were taken round to see some of their tourist
attractions including Sentosa Island and a place called Orchard. The Singapore
Orchard is so vast with all manner of fruit trees as well as natural and exotic
plants from all parts of the world. Yet, that place was fenced.
Before we entered that
paradise-like Orchard, the authorities made sure no one stepped into the yard
with any weapons, or implements or anything that may cause fire whatsoever. How
come tourists who visited Afadjato site, be they citizens or foreigners,
children or adults, were permitted to carry firecrackers along? Don’t we know the
infernos firecrackers have been causing to people in this country, and for
which reason their importation was banned? As for Ghana we only know how to use
“BIG, BIG ENGLISH” to enact laws. Their implementation belongs to dwellers of
other planets in the cosmic realm.
A few suggestions for
consideration to whom it may concern: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and
Creative Arts, in collaboration with the Ghana Tourist Board, the District
Assemblies, the Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies, Traditional authorities,
Forestry Commission and other relevant stakeholders, should undertake a national
inventory of all tourist attractions and
cultural heritage instantly. I hope this has already been done.
Then, a specific security
strategic body, perhaps, with involvement of national security agencies must
formulate a comprehensive National Security Policy of Ghana’s Cultural
Heritage. It will be cheaper to fence all tourist attraction sites nationwide
than to allow bush fires to devastate such rare national heritage. For all you know
some corporate institutions or individual philanthropists interested in touristic
values will be ready to sponsor such a project.
Further, it is suggested that
UNESCO must be contacted for support in this regard. It is common knowledge
that UNESCO is interested in the protection and preservation of world monuments
and heritage. What is required is to write a marketable project proposal for
consideration.
If foreign “galamsey” or illegal
miners in collaboration with their local cohorts have made up their minds to
contaminate and pollute all rivers and waters bodies; destroy all farm lands
and forest reserves for their parochial and selfish prosperity, Ghana’s
cultural heritage and tourist attractions must be protected and preserved for
posterity!
The author works with Information
Services Department of Ministry of Communications in
