Forestry Commission tasks chiefs to join illegal logging fight

The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, John Allotey, has tasked traditional leaders to join in the fight against illegal logging. 

He called for the protection of forest reserves through partnership with traditional rulers and the indigenes to ensure society derived the necessary benefits from it.

“We must protect the forest from illegal logging so that the chiefs and people in the community can derive the benefits from the reserve and get the needed royalties from it,” he stated.

He made these observations when he welcomed the Omanhene of Atronie in the Bono Region, Obrempong Odiawisie Nana Amponsem Darko II, to the head office of the commission in Accra for a dialogue.

Sawmill

He pledged to work with the chief to seek investors to construct a sawmill in Atronie that will process the woods into a refined product for the market and to create jobs for the youth in the area.

“There are sawmills in the Bono Region but one at Atronie will be vital since it holds two of the nations forest reserves, namely the Amoma and Asukesse Forest Reserves,including valuable timber resources,” he noted.

He charged the chief to insist on the five per cent they are entitled to as custodians when signing Social Responsibility Agreements (SRA) with partners who want to log in the forest and pledged his outfit’s resolve to provide seedlings for more Green Ghana projects in his locality.

Mr Allotey also promised to liaise with the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands to provide adequate royalties to communities with forest reserves.

“There is the need for further discussion on the payment of royalties to who  it is merited, we must come to a concrete determination as to what to give to a paramountcy and what must be given to chiefs who are closer to forest reserves,” he stated.

Jobs for the youth

For his part, the Omanhene of Atronie appealed to Mr Allotey to ensure his outfit secured a sawmill for his community to ensure the teeming youth in the community got  jobs to do.

“Because of some protracted chieftaincy instability, people of Atronie were unjustly denied their fair share of the revenue generated from timber concessions, despite the continuous allocation of these concessions to timber contractors through the Forestry Commission,” he noted.

He appealed to the commission to expedite the disbursement of the accrued funds to the community and its chiefs.

“ Let us forge a strong partnership built on trust, transparency and shared goals for the benefit of our community, the Bono Region and the nation as a whole,” he stated.