The Happenings Within The Western North Concerning The Forestry Commission And What The Public Ought To Know

Over the weekend has been full of controversies between the Forestry Commission and the good people of Western North. I have followed with keen interest this latest development and issues surrounding this entire brouhaha. Yesterday, a colleague of mine forwarded a release issued by the Commision through my email. The release sought to clarify what was put out in the public domain by NPP executives within the territorial confines of Western North. I have also had the opportunity to read the release issued by the said executives.It is very interesting and I think, the Forestry Commission "themselves" are not helping the public to know actually where the fault is.

The Forestry Commission through the C.E.O issued the said release concerning *"OPERATION HALT"* the wanton devastation of the forest through the rampant cutting down of trees by illegal chainsaw operators. When this government declared WAR on galamsey operations in this country, there was a serious moratorium on the activities of galamsey. I believe when people paid deaf ears to the order, the government then was forced to constitute a task force called" *Operation vanguard*". It is instructive to note that, operation vanguard through out their fight never entered the premises of goldsmith(s) to vandalise and seized gold manufactured products, neither were people believed to have been connected to galamsey subjected to torture by the task force. They were only instructed to move to site(s) where the galamsey was ongoing.

Same cannot be said about *"operation halt"*. What they came here to do was just to enter the premises of carpenters for reasons best known to them. They demanded monies from these ordinary carpenters and when they insisted on their right(s) as citizens of Ghana, they were subjected to torture. As if that wasnt enough, they set their strutures ablazed and then confiscated their local products. What the task force failed to know is something that should baffle you and I. Carpenters are not illegal chainsaw operators who should have been the first point of target in this fight. Common sense should have informed the C.E.O of the Forestry Commision that, these carpenters only rely on the 30% these timber companies are enjoined to keep as *local sales* to manufacture the things that were seized by "Operation halt task force". I saw an intriguing aspect of the C.E.O's release which I do consider as dishonest and insincerity so to speak. In the said release, the C.E.O categorically stated that, the "operation halt task force" work was to stop certain "illegality" in the forest. I want to place it on record that,the said illegality is being condoned by the Forestry Commission itself. Let me use this opportunity to expose the C.E.O of the commission,Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie.

Seriously,if there is any illegality to be tackled, then the first point of check ought to have been the TIMBER firms we have in Western North who are still operating outside the timber utilization management Act,1997(Act 547). These timber firms namely, SUHUMA COMPANY LTD, SAMATEX COMPANY LTD,General Development Company LTD and others have the largest timber concessions all in breach of section 9(1) of the timber utilization management Act,1997(Act 547). Since Mr.Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie "headed" the commission, alot of forest concessions have been issued to individuals and entities in clear breach of section 7 and 9 of Act,547. I have intercepted documents and correspondences between the commision and General Development Company LTD in respect of award of forest concession.Let it be known that,letter with Ref.FC/A.21/SF.3/VOL.58/101/ of 9/02/2018 was issued by the commission to General Development Company LTD on the award of twenty compartments(28) which is a forest reserve in Jema Asemkrom within the Western North demarcation.

For the sake of education, let me proceed to what the Act 547 says about timber utilization contract in this nature. Section 9 says and I quote as follows" *1) Timber utilization contracts entered into by the Minister of lands and forestry on behalf of the President shall be subject to ratification by Parliament. (2) Parliament may upon the recommendation of the Forestry Commission and upon such conditions as Parliament may prescribed, authorize any other agency of government to approve timber utilization contracts*.

What is more surprising is that, John Peter Amewu who was the then minister in charge of lands and forestry and under whose jurisdiction this contract was supposed to have been considered, had his ministry sidelined in the award of the very compartment under contention. If Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie had paid attention to section 7 of Act,547,he wouldnt have issued the said letter to Messrs General Development Company LTD informing it of "an award of twenty eight forest compartment(s). The said letter should have come from the minister and not the commission. For the avoidance of doubt, let me state the position of the law on this for clarity. The law says and I quote"

*Grant of timber rights-*
(1) The Commission shall with 30 days of receipt of the evaluation report submit the report and its recommendations on it to the Minister. (2) The Minister shall on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission grant the timber rights and shall for that purpose enter into a timber utilization contract on behalf of the President with the successful applicant.

I dont want to go further, I want to end here by calling on the president to call for an immediate investigation into the award of every single forest compartment awarded under Mr.Kwadwo Owusu.Some of us have still not forgotten how the current C.E.O granted an illegal forest permit to Ibrahim Mahama to enter the Nyinahini forest.

Dawda Eric(Equity)
Citizen Vigilance for Justice
29th September,2018
[email protected]