THE President of the National Forest Forum (NFF), Naa Bob Logga, has attributed the annual flooding of some parts of the country, particularly during the rainy season, to the indiscriminate felling of trees and illegal chain saw lumbering which have seriously depleted the forest cover.
He also identified the activities of some Fulani herdsmen as being responsible for the alarming rate at which forest resources were being depleted.
He explained that “Fulanis are the ones who know where all the big trees are and lead the chain saw operators to cut down those trees, resulting in the alarming rate of deforestation in the country”.
Naa Logga stated this at a sensitisation workshop in Tamale on “understanding the implementation of the international Forest Instrument in Ghana”.
It was aimed at identifying where Ghana stood regarding national policy measures agreed in the instrument by assessing the strengths, weaknesses and gaps in policy implementation.
The workshop was attended by stakeholders in the management of forest resources from the three northern regions.
It was organised jointly by the Forestry Commission, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Growing Forest Partnerships (GFP) Initiative and the Forest Fora of Ashanti, Central, Western and Brong Ahafo regions.
Naa Logga said: “Chainsaw problems that used to be in the south have extended to the north and our big trees are all being cut for timber”.
He stressed that “it is time for us to stop the Fulanis from conniving with chainsaw operators, to check the rapid depletion of our forest cover”.
The National Project Co-ordinator, Rev. David Guba Kpelle, said the Forest Instrument would help empower stakeholders in the forestry sector to address the numerous challenges confronting the country’s forest sector.
He further expressed optimism that the workshop would help formulate effective strategies and priority actions that would sanitise the forest sector.
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