Ministry is to clamp down on chainsaw operators

Bechem (B/A), May 26, GNA - The Ministry of Lands and Forest Resources is to collaborate with security agencies, traditional authorities and assembly members to clamp down on chainsaw and other illegal timber operators.

Alhaji Collins Dauda, the sector Minister, said this when he inspected Tetain Forest Reserve at Bechem in Tano South on Monday. Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye Marfo, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, and Mr. Raphael Yeboah, Executive Director, Forest Service Division, accompanied him.

The minister expressed concern about the rate at which illegal logging is depleting forest reserves and said, "If immediate measures are not taken to halt the practice, Ghana will have to import timber some years to come."

A quantity of timber boards and logs were found packed at separate points inside the forest and some chainsaw accessories were also retrieved.

Alhaji Dauda said as a result of illegal logging 30 percent of timber logs that could be used in the carpentry industry were wasted as the perpetrators operated in the night to outwit the security agencies. He said the government would not tolerate the activities of vehicle owners who used their vehicles to convey timber felled by the chainsaw operators.

Mr. Nyamekye Marfo said the Regional Coordinating Council had received information that well-armed illegal operators from Techiman operated in the forest reserve. He appealed to the police and the military to step up night patrols especially on the Bechem/Sunyani/Techiman road to apprehend the perpetrators. The Regional Minister said it was disheartening that chainsaw operations were gaining prominence in the region and appealed to all and sundry to help halt the practice. Mr. Richard Gyasi Amoako, Bechem Forest District Manager, said because the Tetain Forest Reserve was under the supervision of the Nkawie Forest District in the Ashanti Region it made regular supervision and monitoring a problem. Alhaji Dauda ordered that the reserve should be released to the Bechem Forest District with immediate effect to enhance proper supervision.