Forestry Minister expresses worry about depletion of forest

Koforidua (E/E), Aug. 15, GNA - Ms Esther Obeng Dapaah, Minister for Lands, Forest and Mines, has expressed worry about the continuous depletion of the nation's forest and its impact on the economy. She said the situation called for pragmatic efforts from all stakeholders to save the forest and wildlife.

Ms Dapaah expressed the worry in an address read on her behalf at the opening of the 20th National Delegates Conference of Agricultural Science Teachers Association of Ghana (ASTAG) in Koforidua. She said statistics on the forest cover of Ghana showed a worrying picture because at the beginning of the last century, the country had 8.2 million hectares of forest cover but by the time of independence it had reduced to 4 million hectares.

She said in the late 80s it was 2.7 million hectares, currently the estimate of intact forest cover is about 1.6 million hectares. Ms Dapaah said lack of forest education in educational institutions was also another factor responsible for the continuous depletion of the forest.

She said the nation could not neglect forest education and survive and therefore suggested that intensive education should be encouraged in schools in order to prepare the youth to change their attitudes towards how they treat the forest.

Ms Dapaah urged the teachers to help in this direction to promote and sustain the forest so that it would in turn sustain "our lives as individuals and as a nation".

Mr Isaac Asiegbor, National President of ASTAG, said since 1994 ASTAG had been a lone voice exposing issues confronting agriculture and environmental training system, but not much had been achieved due to the fact that policy makers turned death ears to those issues.