Executive Co-Founder of Denkyira Heritage Foundation wins Quarry Life Award
The Quarry Life Award, instituted and sponsored by Heidelberg Cement seeks to promote competition in research projects to afford Heidelberg Cement, global manufacturer of cement the opportunity to improve on its biodiversity management practices as well as share best practice examples with the public.
The Award instituted two years ago, has generated great enthusiasm among researchers, students, and environmental associations across the five continents. This year’s competition attracted 400 project proposals from 22 countries.
Out of the entries, 95 projects were selected for the competition in five different categories: Biodiversity and Education, Innovation and Biodiversity, Biodiversity Enhancement, Raising Public Awareness, and Student Project. The best project in each category was awarded with a cheque for €10,000, while a Grand Prize winner received a cheque for €30,000 as the best overall project.
Ntiamoah, who also placed second in the overall Global Quarry Life Award, out of 400 project proposals from 22 countries, won Ghana’s Quarry Life Award a couple of months ago with a project entitled “The use of vermicompost as treatment for topsoil in restoring biodiversity”.
Ntiamoah’s project was against the backdrop that in Ghana, more than US$ 2 billion worth organic foodstuffs were wasted in 2012 and about 1.3 billion tonnes of organic food produced globally was wasted annually, according to Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The project aimed at converting the wasted organic food into powerful compost that has the power to restore the soil fertility at any quarry site during reclamation to promote biodiversity by using worm species called Eudrilus eugeniae (African Night Crawler) and also to free the environment from any adverse effect generated by the organic food waste.
The international jury for the Gobal Quarry Life Award was composed of Daniel Gauthier, Member of the Managing Board; Richard Grimmett, Director for Conservation at BirdLife International; Erasto Mark Njavike, Program Manager at Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots in Tanzania; Dr. Michael Rademacher, Biodiversity and Natural Resources Director at Heidelberg Cement; and Dr. Ulrich Tränkle, Director of AGLN, a consultancy for landscape planning and nature conservation management.
“This second edition of the Global Quarry Life Award was a resounding success,” said Daniel Gauthier, Member of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Cement, in his welcome address.
An elated Ntiamoah, later told the media that the award was a demonstration that the University he attends can match any other institution in the world in term of quality, research and innovation.
