Ghana's Forest Reserves Threatened
Ghana will loose its forest resource in the next 23 years, if measures are not taken to curb the current rate of deforestation.
Collins Dauda, Minister for Lands and Natural Resource, confirmed this at the inauguration of the second Forest Plantation Development Fund Management Board (FPDFMB) in Accra.
“The country's total forest cover which stood at 8.2 million hectares at the turn of the 20th century has decreased to about 1.6 million hectares and it is estimated that the nation's forest depletes by 65,000 hectares every year,” he emphasized.
The timber industry is currently the fourth largest foreign exchange earner after minerals, cocoa and tourism and contributes about 7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); but it is largely cancelled out by an annual forest degradation cost of about 4 percent of the country's GDP.
Hon. Dauda explained that the country's natural resources were declining both in quality and quantity due to its over-exploitation, adding “Poor timber processing methods coupled with illegal logging and chainsaw lumbering have also negatively affected forestry management.
He called on the new members of the Board to reverse the natural forest depletion rates and to develop large areas of forest plantation.
The board, he said, should also provide incentives, training and technical advice to people involved in commercial plantation, forestry and to support increased establishment of forest plantations by private and public sector agencies.
He also urged the new board to implement transparent fund disbursement criteria and to avoid situations where funds were used to procure taxis and urvan buses instead of investing in plantation development.
“The Board must invest fund resources in actual plantations, which are its the core objectives and to desist from investing money.”Hon. Dauda reiterated.
The Dormahene, Osaedeyo Agyeman Badu, who is the also the chairman of the FPDFM Board, in his response, expressed appreciation to the Minister for the trust imposed in them, adding that he and the other board members would not fail in the attainment of their objectives.
He also promised that the board would immediately approve the plantation development scheme for the country which would cover a period of 10 years.
Other board members of the board include Ahmed Bin Salih, Chief Director of the Ministry for Lands and Natural Resource; Alhaji Alhassan N. Attah, Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission; Peter Sanger-Dery, Fund Manager of Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and Kwabena Amoah, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.