Government is considering importing wood for all major government projects in a bid to protect the country’s forest reserves.
The Minister of Lands, Forestry and Natural resources, Nii Osah Mills told the media that the measure is to help put an end to illegal felling of trees in the country.
“It’s all about trying to make sure that only wood that is legal wood is used in government’s operations,” he said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”yUBShjKqtLHxv9ZjecXLgnTAuFqPTpji”]It is estimated that the rate of deforestation currently stands at 65 thousand hectares per annum and Ghana’s total forest cover, which stood at 8.2 million hectares, representing 34 per cent of the total land area, at the turn of the last century, has decreased to 1.6 million hectares.
The Minister also revealed that government will remove taxes on imported wood as another measure of protecting the nation’s forest reserves.
Osah Mills announced that effective measures have been instituted to track the wood on the market that were cut down through illegal means.
He explained the process saying, “we are making it possible to try to track wood so that when the wood is cut and is being used, we can tell whether it’s wood that has been legally cut and is legally being used in the system.”
The Forestry Commission has disclosed that Ghana will soon be forced to import potable water if the nation continues to lose its forests cover.
But the Minister is hopeful that the current measures will protect the remaining forest cover.
The sector Minister further mentioned government’s far reaching plans which include adapting eco-tourism and bio diversity policies to protect the nation’s forest reserves.
“We are looking for biodiversity, we are moving towards eco-tourism and that is one of the reasons why at the Achimota Forest, we are going to do the first eco-tourism park.”
Osah Mills revealed that an expression of interest has already been done and the Ministry will soon undertake the bidding, the awarding of the contract for work to commence to transform the Achimota forest into an eco-tourism park.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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