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Mr Ernest Apau, Ho West District Chief Executive has underscored the need to enforce the ban on logging activities in the Kalakpa Nature Reserve and relocate communities in the reserve.
The DCE said the relocation had been politicised, and that the Assembly had made several failed attempts at enforcement and relocation of settled communities, and would require central government's intervention.
Mr Apau said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a tree planting exercise to mark World Environment Day at Anfoeta Tsebi in the Ho West District, organised by the Development Institute (DI), a Non-Governmental Organisation.
“Until they exit, people will always find a host to stay with and illegally hunt and log in the forest. We are going through the process of relocating them… let us stay patient and be supportive of this; that’s important,” he said.
The DCE said the harvest of timber trees in the reserve was leading to its destruction, and that government must prosecute anyone found responsible, be it government officials or ordinary citizens.
"I want to up my voice to be heard by government to search for the perpetrators of all acts that led to the harvesting of timber from the Kalakpa Reserve, which has led to the destruction of that national edifice," he said later at a durbar to climax the celebration, which was on the theme “Air Pollution, We Can’t Stop Breathing, But We Can Do Something about the Quality of Air we Breathe”.
Mr Apau said stakeholders must not spare people who are “imbued with the spirit of greed and disregard the laws governing our social and natural environment”.
“Such elements whether government officials or community members should be punished severely when caught undertaking acts of destruction of the environment,” he stated.
Mr Apau also appealed to settlers to understand the concept, and help preserve the Reserve and its unending tourism potentials.
The forest reserve, designated by a Legislative Instrument in 1975, is home to over 270 species of birds as well as buffaloes, river-hogs, and monkeys, and attracts thousands of tourists annually, but is being threatened by illegal logging, particularly, Rose wood.
The logging activities are recorded mostly in areas such as Fosime, Adaklu Torkpetoe and Dokpo.
Mr Joffrey Kinney, Executive Director of DI, which has been championing the preservation of the resource, told GNA it was time government enforced the laws to protect the resource.
“What we see in Kalakpa is failure on the part of politicians and the wildlife division because most of the caveat that they put around that people should move out before government can do something... I see it not to be realistic because as soon as the place was designated, it was government’s responsibility to resettle the people long time ago,” he said.
Mr Kinney said Kalakpa was the “most unique” nature reserve in Ghana due to its ecology, and said it must be saved.
“There is no reserve in this country like Kalakpa so it is the right of citizens in the Volta Region to get involved in how this particular protected area can be restored,” he stated.
Mr Kinney also called on government to arrest and prosecute those who destroyed the Reserve and retrieved money made from the wood sold to relocate the people.
Mr Kinney noted that the Reserve was not far from Accra and had all the potentials of an ecotourism site that would serve the needs of tourists and reduce poverty in the area.
GNA gathered that earlier this year, youths in the area rose against illegal loggers and managed to drive some out of the area, only for them (illegal loggers) to return later with arms and hunting dogs on a massive logging and hunting spree.
A police task force recently stormed the Reserve and impounded a container load of rosewood, a mobile saw mill and arrested some loggers.
