Small and medium scale timber companies to be protected

Akyawkrom (Ash), July 29, GNA - The Ministry of Lands and Forestry has put in place measures to protect small and medium scale companies against getting crowded out from the allocation of timber resources under the competitive bidding process for the grant of Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUCs), Professor Dominic Fobih, Sector Minister, has said.

''For the sake of fairness and equity in the bidding process the timber industry and the TUC areas have been grouped into small, medium and large categories.''

Professor Fobih said this during a meeting he held with timber associations at the Wood Industries Training Centre (WITC) at Akyawkrom in the Ejisu-Juaben District.

The meeting was designed to explain to the stakeholders the bidding procedures and to provide them with the opportunity to make inputs for the fine-tuning of the process.

The Minister said since the timber resource base was limited it had become necessary to see to it that there was some rationalisation in the allocation.

He said it was for this reason that the Timber Resources Management Act 2002 provides that each company could be allocated a maximum of 125 square kilometres of TUC at a time.

The maximum cumulative holding has been fixed and these are small, 200 square kilometres, medium 300 square kilometres and large 500 square kilometres. Timber rights granted would not exceed 40 years. The Minister said he had directed the Forestry Commission to dialogue with the industry on levies and fees, adding that the first bidding for TUCs would start by the end of September.

Prof Fobih told the timber operators to stop the practice of going to chiefs to collect letters showing that the chiefs were ready to allow their companies to operate in areas owned by their stools saying, "we do not have powers to pick and choose. We must all work with the bidding process". Mr Adjei Yeboah, Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Lands and Forestry, said they have been keenly following the process and that they were convinced that it was genuine. He said the Committee did not, therefore, expect the timber operators to come back to lobby and put pressure on Parliament.