Alternative livelihood for chainsaw operators
The European Union (EU), in collaboration with the Forestry Commission of Ghana, Tropenbos International Ghana and the Forest Research Institute of Ghana, is to implement a project that will seek to develop alternative to illegal chainsaw milling through multi-stakeholder dialogue.
Mr Joseph Bempah, Kade District Forest Manager, said this when he addressed a district level meeting on Friday.
The meeting was attended by officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Kwaebibirem District Assembly, Forestry Commission, Tropenbos International Ghana, a non-governmental organization, forest forum, chiefs, opinion leaders, chainsaw operators and other stakeholders.
Mr Bempah said the annual allowable cut for timber is one million cubic meters but that is being exceeded to about three million meters due mainly to illegal logging and chain sawing.
He said the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) put the rate of forest disappearance for developing countries including Ghana at 1.3 percent annum.
Mr Bempah said from his observation, the Kwaebibirem District and for that matter the Kade forest district would be a little higher than the rest of the country judging from the rate at which citrus and oil palm farms are expanding and surface mining activities from both licensed and illegal sources for both diamond and gold.
He said forests are contributing to all aspects of both rural and urban life, providing fuel, medicine, building materials, timber and household items as well as many more intangible benefits such as cultural symbols, ritual artefacts and sacred sites.
For example in 2006 total timber revenue realized and disbursed to the district assemblies and the originating stools amounted to 248,367,211 Ghana cedis.
Mr Bempah said efforts are underway to halt the fast dwindling of forests in the district through a number of interventions.
He said the district administration had embraced the greening Ghana initiative introduced by the government during the 50th independence anniversary celebration.
So far more than 5,000 seedlings had been planted by the district assembly, schools, individuals and communities.
He said individuals and organizations that were in tree planting schemes are being assisted with seedlings and loans to facilitate the planting programme.