The Member of Parliament for Zebilla, Ebenezer Ndebilla, has sounded an alarm on the escalating environmental crisis in Northern Ghana. He attributed the region’s mounting environmental threats to weak regulatory oversight, poor enforcement mechanisms, and unsustainable practices such as illegal logging, charcoal burning, bushfires, and destructive farming methods. According to the MP, these activities were devastating crop yields and exacerbating food insecurity.
He emphasied the need for urgent action to address these issues, particularly in the northern savannah ecological zone, which includes his constituency. “It should be such that agroforestry is incorporated into farming activity to the extent that you don’t go killing trees to plant crops,” he advises. “You should especially reserve economic trees when making farmlands for production, and those that do not have economic value to our farmers can be killed.”
To effectively tackle environmental degradation, Mr. Ndebilla advocated collaboration between traditional authorities and local assemblies to enforce bylaws. “There should also be some kind of collaboration between traditional authorities and local assemblies to enforce some bylaws, because if there are no such laws that will prevent the cutting of trees, and then we leave everyone to do anything they want, before you realise the whole place will be empty,” he stresses.
The MP’s call to action highlights the pressing need for sustainable solutions to Northern Ghana’s environmental challenges.
