Nii Osa Mills was speaking at the launch of the National Exhibition on Nature Conservation in Ghana which came off at the Accra City Hotel in Accra on Saturday, 10 December.

“Apart from our nature reserves, there are waterfalls that present beautiful scenes that attract both local and foreign tourists. Regrettably, these resources are not well developed. We can talk about Boti water falls in the Eastern Region, Wli water falls, Volta Region, Kintampo waterfalls, Brong Ahafo Region and Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region,” he said.

He said one of the new initiatives of government would be to convert the Achimota Forest into an ecological park to protect it from further degradation and to serve as a first class tourism destination for both domestic and international tourists.

Ghana’s Ambassador to France, Johanna Odonkor Svaniker said the exhibition was meant to garner support for the government’s bid to have Mole National Park listed as a World Heritage Site.

“Mole National Park has been on the tentative list for listing as World Heritage Site and we thought to bring attention to Ghanaian because we need the collaboration of Ghanaians to be able to get it ready to be listed. When it is listed, it becomes not only a Ghanaian park but an international one as well.” she said.

The CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mawuena Trebarh said GIPC was more interested in investing in nature conversation related sites in order to boost both domestic and foreign tourist traffic.

“Nature conservation is becoming a very important topic globally and having the opportunity to showcase rare plant and animal species and inviting both the Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian tourist communities means that more services will be required, more auxiliary services which create economic opportunities for the local communities,” she added.