Minister concerned about environmental degredation

Sunyani, May 11, GNA - Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, on Wednesday expressed concern about rapid population growth, general disregard for environmental conservation, improper disposal of industrial and domestic waste as well as uncontrolled logging and the annual ritual of wildfires in the country. These, he said, were the major factors that had contributed to widespread land degradation and deforestation.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah said this at the regional launch of the national wildfire management policy, jointly organised by the Forestry Commission, Regional Coordinating Council and Care International, an NGO, in Sunyani.


He said it was unfortunate that the country had lost more than three-quarters of its original high forest cover due mostly to human activities and climate hazards.


He said the region had been spearheading the national crusade against wild and bush fires that were the largest causes of forest and vegetative cover loss in the country.


"As a result, the region has been able to preserve a great proportion of vegetative cover as well as abundant supply of foodstuffs all year round as the burning of food farms in the dry season have reduced", he said.


Mr Baffour-Awuah said the national wildfire policy was significant to the region, parts of which lie between the transitional forest zone of the south and savannah of the north.


"With the ever threatening downward drift of the savannah due to the rampant incidence of wildfires, the policy will motivate the communities, the law enforcing agencies and various stakeholders in the region to be pro-active in prevention, control and management of wildfires", he said.

He said the region was endowed with a number of eco-tourism sites, which had great potential for the tourism industry and the resources could therefore be further enhanced through the implementation of an effective policy on wildfire management strategy.


Mr Baffour-Awuah expressed appreciation to Care International for their continued support for the various pro-poor programmes and urged other NGOs working in the region to emulate it.


Mr. Emmanuel Gay Kumah Dogbe, Brong Ahafo Regional Manager of Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission, said currently wildfire was the major cause of forest and land degradation and consequently threatened the promotion of timber plantation development, biodiversity conservation, agricultural production, watershed management and maintenance of environmental quality.


He said 30 per cent of forest areas in the high forest and transitional zones and 90 per cent of forests in dry northern savanna zones were known to be prone to wildfires.


"Losses due to wildfires in 1994 amounted to more than 97 million dollars, which is equal to two per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)", the regional manager said.


With respect to merchantable timber, Mr. Dogbey said the loss to wildfires had been estimated at 24 million dollars annually.

Mr Dogbe said local communities directly suffered from this loss of forest cover through the destruction of their local watershed systems and the destruction of a wide range of non-timber forest products. He described as unfortunate that several legislations that passed in the past to manage wildfires in the country had not been implemented effectively.


The regional manager said the Forestry Commission, under the wildfire management project in the transitional zone with technical assistance from other pro-poor service delivery organizations, had spearheaded and supported the formulation of a more pro-active, pragmatic and comprehensive framework.


"This framework is to guide and determine government and institutional action towards wildfire management in order to restore the ecological integrity of the forest, conserve and sustainably protect the natural environment and reduce rural poverty."


Mr. David Sumbo, Northern Coordinator of Care International, said the objective of the workshop was to disseminate the wildfire policy to relevant stakeholders.


He stressed the need to ensure that citizens derived maximum benefits from policies by ensuring that all stakeholders played their role in getting the policy implemented.