Gender issues would be integrated into the Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP), aimed at combating desertification and reversing land degradation in the three Northern Regions.

GEMP is a five year programme initiated by Canadian and Ghana Governments to implement the National Action Programme (NAP) on the issues.

The programme which began last year, is overseen by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, and implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As part of the gender mainstreaming strategies, the EPA, on Monday, organized a Regional Consultative Workshop with stakeholders, including planning officers of District Assemblies, departmental heads, traditional authorities, District Environmental Management and Community Environmental Management Committees in 38 selected communities in the Upper East.

They deliberated on how to come out with workable strategies to mainstream gender issues into the GEMP.

The Regional Director of EPA, Mrs Zenabu Wasai-King, said the involvement of women in the policies and programmes of GEMP were very crucial because women played a major role in environmental management.

He expressed regret that in the Northern sector most women were relegated to the background in land and water management issues, but said when these resources were depleted, women and children suffered the most.

They have to commute long distances in search of water and wood for fuel, yet they are not involved when it comes to decision making processes in these areas.

She said charcoal production was one of the major income earning activities among the largely poor women in the three Northern Regions, and fuel wood was also gathered by women and sold in markets, communities' food vendors and pito brewers.

She stressed that women should be involved in the management and sustainability of land and water resources, forests, wildlife and biodiversity.

The Regional Director stressed the need for women to have equal access to forestry information, training, education and research as men, and appealed to policy makers and planners to provide adequate data, information and methodologies to respond to women's specific needs.

She said there was the need for women to have accessibility to markets credit and other alternative livelihood programes that would take them away from activities that degrade the environment.

The Programme Officer of EPA, Isaac Acquah, said it would provide the beneficiary communities and women with the support, to undertake alternative livelihood projects.

GEMP would also build their capacities in land and water management to protect and sustain environment from degrading.

He noted that the overall goal of the GEMP was to strengthen Ghanaian institutions and rural communities to enable them to reverse the trends in land degradation and desertification.