As part of their program of mountain ecosystems’ governance in West Africa, The Platform of Civil Society Organizations for the Safeguard of Mountains (PSM) organized one day conference aiming to think on the methodology and other relevant strategies to be developed in order to draw up a Red List of ecosystems for Togo, Ghana and Benin, three countries crossed by the Atakora range. Held on January 19, the conference gathered university teachers, researchers, leaders of organizations dealing with environmental protection, traditional leaders, local decision makers and representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Forest Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Taking the theme “Red List of Ecosystems”, discussions and exchanges touched first the important role our ecosystems plays to the sustainable development of communities in the sub-region. Despite the valuable contributions of the ecosystems for human’s well-being, the big challenges that our ecosystems are facing were raised one by one. There are among others the lack of research focusing on the mechanism to bridge, at the one hand, theory and practice and, at the other hand, traditional measures and the scientific approach to protect the various ecosystems in the respect of African cultural context.
At the end of the conference, participants recommended to the platform to look for partners who would be interested to assist technically and financially, the platform for the implementation of this Red List of Ecosystems initiative that will constitute a valuable tool for the governance of ecosystems.
For more information, you can get in touch with our Togo National Network.