The Ghana Chapter of Global Alliance for Technologies in Nature Conservation (GAfTiNC), an international organization dedicated to harnessing the power of technology to protect and preserve the world’s natural ecosystems, has been launched in Accra.
The organisation, the first of its kind to be launched globally, holds the view that by leveraging technology, biodiversity and ecosystems challenges could be easily addressed.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after the launch, Mr Emmanuel Opoku, Country Coordinator of GAfTiNC, said the idea for setting up the organisation was born out of the desire to save the planet by bridging the vast gap in technology between the developed and developing countries.
“And the reason why we are coming up with this Association is that a lot of effort that has gone on to make sure of all the changes we are seeing in terms of the environment and nature conservation could be enhanced with technology,” he said.
Mr Opoku said unlike the past where issues of climate change and global warming seemed quite distant, the twin issues were now closer and the effects being experienced in the current harsh weather patterns across the country.
“Currently, we have seen this climate change come too close to the extent that in January and February, we are not seeing the way the weather is supposed to be in other months. The warming and the changes are telling us that there is something that we need to do,” Mr Opoku said.
He said while there were many advancements in technology overtime, no serious efforts had been made to integrate it in dealing with nature conservation and current governance issues globally.
“So, what we are doing is that we want to bring all the quality experts around the globe together so that we’ll be able to share ideas and to put in more effort to solve the challenges we are having in nature conservation,” Mr Opoku said.
He said by bringing together ICT professionals, conservation experts, researchers, students and environmental NGOs, among others, it would ensure that all the technologies available were used to solve the problems.
So, by bringing this association together, we’ll be able to have the technologies transferred as fast as possible. We could also find a way of coming together and devising an appropriate technology to solve the same problems.
Mr Opoku expressed the hope that the initiative from Ghana would within the next five years spread to every country and affect the whole world.
He said the Association was ready to partner with the Forestry Commission, which had done a lot of research into the use of sound detection systems to be able to detect illegal sounds in the forest, the various Ministries and companies to help with the conservation efforts.
GAFTINC’s mission is rooted in the belief that by leveraging technology, we can address the pressing challenges facing our planet’s biodiversity and natural ecosystems.
It aims to promote innovation, collaboration, and sustainability in conservation efforts, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to address pressing environmental challenges.
From remote sensing and artificial intelligence to blockchain and citizen science, GAfTiNC explores innovative approaches to conservation that harness the power of technology to drive positive change.
