A professor of Religion and Environment, Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye, has tasked religious leaders to devote much time to conscientise their followers on the need to conserve the environment.

That, he noted, would go a long way to safeguard the environment and promote sustainable growth.

"To me, the impact of this will be far greater than the annual week declared by some religious denominations to do environmental cleaning and talk about the environment," he added.

Prof. Awuah-Nyamekye made these comments while delivering his inaugural lecture on the topic: " The Nexus between Religion and Environment: Matters Arising."

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye being robed by the College of Professors

Expounding on the contributions of the three main religions in Ghana to the preservation of the environment, he said, for instance, traditional believers had mechanisms for addressing ecological problems, mentioning attitude towards rivers and lands, sacred grove, belief in totem, institution of sacred days, among others.

For Christians, Prof. Awuah, added that they had instituted days to as a measure to plant trees to protect the environment.

As regards Islamic Religion, he observed that "Islam is a religion that enjoins its followers to respect creation and protect the environment.”

The audience at the inaugural lecture

He called on government to seek the inputs of religious organisations in the design of policy on the environment to protect the country’s forests, rivers, farmlands, and environment from destruction.

Prof. Awuah Nyamekye called for effective measures to be put in place to integrate religious environmentalism and its sub-field environmental ethics into Ghana's educational curricula for the youth to appreciate the need to conserve the environment.

He mentioned disrespect for other religions' ways of addressing ecological problems and tagging them as unscientific as a major problem for using religion to address some of the ecological problems.

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye exchanging pleasantries with family members after the lecture

Prof. Awuah Nyamekye at a glance:

• Born on 25the January 1962 at Biadan near Berekum

• Began education at the Biadan Methodist School

• Had secondary education at Berekum and Dormaa secondary schools

• Appointed as Assistant Lecturer in 2003

•Published two books, co-edited two books.

• Authored 23 articles in internationally esteemed scholarly journals and 15 books chapters

• Supervised  two PhD students

* Married with eight children