Dr. Caleb Ofori-Boateng, a Senior Research Scientist at the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), a division of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has advised Ghanaians against eating bush meat because it is harmful.
He added that “we don’t need bush meat anymore; in Ghana, people are on alternative protein sources like chicken and fish and others.” He attributed this to the pesticides used in hunting for the animals.
At a four-day workshop in Accra on Tuesday, Dr. Ofori-Boateng made this statement to highlight the effects of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund’s (CEPF) investment in the Guinean Forests of West Africa, a biodiversity hotspot, from 2016 to 2022.
A survey by Conservation International (CI), according to Dr. Ofori-Boateng, revealed that some local restaurant owners admitted to not tasting meals made with bush meat when cooking because they were afraid of the hazardous pesticides used to capture the animal.
They admit that occasionally, because the meat is so hazardous, they don’t check to see whether there is enough salt or if it is truly cooked when they prepare these dinners or soups, he added.
According to Dr. Ofori-Boateng, hunting for bush meat would continue as long as “wealthy people desire to eat bush meat.”
Additionally, he stated that chemicals, notably Alfrazine, were being utilized in Africa and that these chemicals were able to transform male amphibians into females by getting into the household water systems’ underground water supply.
Such operations, he added, were unregulated and posed serious health risks to people, endangering the environment.
The hazards posed by the use of hazardous chemicals, in Dr. Ofori-opinion, Boateng’s are big and huge, and everyone involved in environmental conservation needs to be more resolute and determined.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU