Forestry Commission To Offer 15,000 Jobs Under Land Reclamation

The government, through the Forestry Commission of Ghana, will this year offer 15,000 jobs for the youth in the land reclamation exercise currently underway in the country, in nursing and planting of trees.

The exercise is aimed at reclaiming the lost land and vegetation through the operations of the illegal mining ‘galamsey’ activities.

Eight local firms, according to the Forestry Commission, have been contracted to do the reclamation over a period of one year in the Eastern, Ashanti and Western regions, where they suffered massive land degradation.

Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission of Ghana, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, announced this on Tuesday February 6, 2018, at Krobo, a farming community in the Amansie Central district of the Ashanti region, during an inspection on the reclamation sites at the Apamproma Forest Reserve, which was heavily hit by the illegal mining.

The Forestry Commission was accompanied by the officials of the District Assembly, led by the DCE, Hon. Asamoah Boateng, the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Francis Manu Adabo and the representatives from the Bekwai Traditional Council.

The recruits, according to the Chief Executive, who is known in political circles as Sir John, will receive an annual salary of GHC 400, plus other incentives, in the nursing and planting of trees to restore the lost vegetation.

“After paying them the GHC400, the Commission will also give them uniforms, cutlasses and boots to work with, over a long period of time. This is what the Nana Akufo Addo led government is doing to create jobs for the youth, as he promised,” he said.

He then promised the people of Krobo a quota of 200 slots in the recruitment exercise, and advised them to embrace the opportunity given them, and stop involving themselves in the illegal mining and chain-saw activities.

The Akwamuhene of Bekwai Traditional Council, Nana Ntiamoah Amankuo III, commended the government for the reclamation, and recounted how the illegal mining has destroyed the forest.

“The galamsey activities have destroyed the lands, the money been used in reclamation now is very huge so I entreat those in the illegal activities to stop and preserve our lands,” he added.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Francis Adabo Manu, speaking in an interview with Otec News’ reporter Francis Appiah, expressed his satisfaction at the works on the sites been reclaimed.

“We are here to find out if indeed there is illegal mining activities at the sites here, as reported in the media, but I can see that the lands are been covered, so I can brief my members on that. The money used in the covering of the land could have been used to shape bad roads in this district, so let’s think about the future and stop engaging in illegal mining,” he pleaded.