Forestry Service Division cultivates more than 8,000 hectares of plantation
The Forestry Service Division (FSD) has cultivated 8,752.85 hectares of teak, oframo and cedrella plantations in the Brong-Ahafo Region under the Modified Tuangya System between 2001 and 2009.
The Modified Tuangya System (MTS) was launched by former President John Agyekum Kufuor at Ayigbe in the Wenchi Municipality of the region in 2001 to promote food security, restore degraded forests and create employment for the youth.
Under the system, farmers are supported with farm inputs to plant their food stuffs and assisted in clearing, pegging and planting of the various tree species in and along the forest reserves.
The project was outsourced to 30 private developers and created employment for more than 10,000 youth.
Mr. Thomas Okyere, Regional Manager of the FSD, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani on Thursday.
The regional manager explained that a total of 1,585 hectares were cultivated in the Paamu Forest Reserve in Berekum, 700 hectares in the Mpamesu Forest Reserve in Dormaa, 777.3 hectares in the Tain One Forest Reserve and 500 hectare in the Tain Two Forest Reserve in Sunyani.
In the Sawsaw Forest Reserve and Amoma Shelter Belt, a total of 770 and 4,000 hectares of forest plantations were cultivated, respectively, whilst in the Bechem Bosomkese Forest Reserve 424.25 hectares were cultivated, he added.
Mr. Okyere said under the division’s model plantation, a total of 70 hectares of plantation were cultivated in the Sunyani, Tain One, Sawsaw and Kintampo Bosomoa forest reserves.
Under the HIPC Plantation Project, the FSD also cultivated 8,715 hectares of the same tree species within the same period and 3,921 hectares of plantation under the Forest Management Project, he said.
Mr. Okyere said in 2010, the division cultivated 4,259.8 hectares of plantation with 1,135.8 in forest reserves and 3,124 hectares off-reserves.
He stated that 1,786 youth were engaged to work in the forest reserves whilst the off-reserves created job opportunities for 3,943 youth.
Mr. Okyere explained that the programme was outsourced to ZOIL, a branch of ZoomLion, responsible for afforestation, to be in-charge of cultivation whilst the African Brigade handled the supply of seedlings.
The FSD has targeted the cultivation of a total of 2,000 hectares of plantation at Atebubu, Sunyani, Kintampo, Bechem, Dormaa and Goaso with the plantation taking off at Kintampo and Dormaa.
He said land demarcation had been completed whilst clearing and pegging were on-going at the remaining areas.
Mr. Okyere explained that the FSD in collaboration with the Municipal and District Assemblies as well as some security agencies had set up a monitoring team to patrol the plantations whilst forest guards manned the reserves.
He, however, expressed concern about illegal logging in some of the forest reserves and called on community leaders, chiefs, assembly members and the district assemblies to help arrest the situation.
Mr. Daniel Donkor, Assistant Regional Manager of FSD, said Brong-Ahafo had 21 forest reserves and mentioned fire outbreaks and illegal logging as major contributory factors to the gradual degrading of the reserves.
“If strict measures are not put in place the region will experience desertification in the next five years,” the regional manager cautioned.
He appealed to the judiciary and the police to endeavour to ensure rapid prosecution of cases of illegal logging brought before them.
Mr. Donkor said Ghana loses huge sums of money every year to illegal logging and “if it is not brought under control posterity will not spare us.”
He advised all stakeholders to contribute their part to preserve such national heritage for future generations.
Source: GNA
The issue of Forest degradation in Ghana has not been fairly adequately handled for the past 10 years. The efforts by the previous Government to forestall the degradation, even though involved important Presidential initiative with the introduction of the MTS, did not go far enough to get the Public involved in stopping the degradation. It is better to educate the Public to do more to protect the Forests, and encourage the Law Enforcement Agencies to leave no stone unturned in seeking swift and deserving Justice to illegal activities in the Forests, than to throw massive resources into resuscitating the dying Forests.
The case of Afram and Opro Reforestation Projects in the Ashanti Region that were booming at period in the 70s and 80s should form a case-study to help determine where the intervention best ought to be.
Besides, I think the frequent reshuffling and reconstitution of the Forestry Commission has done more to diffuse the focus on the urgency of that problem. The Commission should not be a Political one. Rather, it should be more Technical in nature, populated with competent professionals, preponderantly with Forestry, Agricultural, Environmental and Natural Resource Management background. And the membership tenure must last for, at least, 5 years. There ought to be more field trips by the members of the Commission to see first-hand how the people’s lives are impacted by the changing Forest Boundaries, and how the various stakeholders, especially the Forestry Department Personnel in the Field are coping to win the Forests back.
Thanks.