Forestry Commission, Ghana Rubber Estate sign MoU

The Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL), a subsidiary of the SIFCA group, has released a total land area of 240 hectares of its concession at Awudua in the Wassa Traditional Area in the Western Region for the conservation of biodiversity.

The initiative forms part of a collaborative effort to shore up the country’s depleting forest cover and more importantly to protect the Ankobra River.

In this direction, GREL and the Forestry Commission of Ghana, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to initiate the joint management of the forestation project.

Joseph C. Garbrah, Corporate affairs manager for GREL, said the initiative is part of the group’s sustainable development Charter.

According to him, the Charter makes it mandatory for all subsidiaries of SIFCA to dedicate 10 per cent of its concession for the conservation biodiversity in its operational areas.

“So what we are doing in Ghana now is obedience to the SIFCA charter to which we are actually committed to implementing”.

Mr Samuel Afari-Dartey, Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, lauded the bold initiative of GREL towards the country’s forest conservation efforts.

“The commission will do everything possible to assist such novelty and also congratulate the management of GREL for taking this bold initiative”, he noted

Aside the environmental benefit of the initiative, he was hopeful that very soon the project would yield some financial rewards through the Carbon Credit market that is about to develop in Ghana.

He added that under the Commission’s climate change programme, they are engaging with the World Bank to develop programmes to make the structure for the Carbon Market a viable one.

Jean Dupuis, Project Manager of GREL, also noted that, the dedicated area for the project has special plant and animal species and fauna which the company has decided to keep.

He said the collaboration with the forestry Commission is ensuring a sustainable development management of the project.