Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana)

The Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA Ghana) is an agency of Ministry, established by EPA Act 490 (1994). The agency is dedicated to improving, conserving and promoting the country's environment and striving for environmentally sustainable development with sound, efficient resource management, taking into account social and equity issues. It oversees the implementation of the National Environment Policy. EPA Ghana's mission is to manage, protect and enhance the country's environment and seek common solutions to global environmental problems. Its mission is to be achieved through an integrated environmental planning and management system with broad public participation, efficient implementation of appropriate programs and technical services, advice on environmental problems and effective, consistent enforcement of environmental law and regulations. EPA Ghana is a regulatory body and a catalyst for change to sound environmental stewardship.

The agency began during a time of growing concern about the dangers to the environment from careless human activity, prompting the United Nations to convene a conference in Stockholm on the environment in June 1972. Guidelines for action were adopted at the conference, including the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The decision to establish the Environment Protection Council was a direct result of the recommendations of the Stockholm Conference. Before this decision, Ghana was elected by the General Assembly to the Governing Council of 58 nations set up to administer the affairs of the UNEP.

Before the Stockholm conference, Ghana had felt the need for environmental protection and prepared the ground for a body to deal with environmental matters in the country. Several organizations had begun initiatives in environmental work; the best-known were:

• The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, established as the local counterpart of the international body of the same name
• The Conservation Committee of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
• The Ghana Working Group on the Environment, an informal group of scientists united by a common concern about environmental matters
• National Committee on the Human Environment, formed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1971 as a result of concern expressed by the Economic Commission for Africa and the Organisation of African Unity about the need to conserve and protect Africa's natural resources