Bleak future as Ghana's forest cover diminishes

Rampant deforestation and poor policy by the Ghanaian government to effectively manage the country's wildlife have significantly reduced the country's forest cover leading to fears that bad times lie ahead. The Minister of Lands and Forestry, Prof. Kassim Kasanga at a workshop on bio-diversity in Accra recently explained that overlapping of institutional responsibilities and lack of inter-agency co-ordination in planning coupled with over-harvesting of fauna and flora now threaten the survival of some timber species.

In less than fifty years, Ghana's total forest cover of Ghana has fallen from 8.2 million hectares to 1.6 million last year. Government sources said that since the country's independence from Britain in 1957 the annual deforestation rate has been averaging 65,000 hectares per year. According to the country's Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Clement Eledi the reduction of the forest was the result of the failure of Ghana's Forestry and Wildlife policies and strategies to ensure that forest and wildlife resources were managed on economically viable, socially beneficial and environmentally sound principles.

Officially, there are about 200 licensed timber companies operating in the country, which are under obligation to replant areas under their operation. But the number is estimated to be much higher with illegal operators, also called 'Chain Saw operators' being blamed for the indiscriminate felling of trees and failing to replant depleted lands. More disturbing is the fact that some of these illegal operators have been cutting timber endangered species like the Mahogany whose population is declining fast.

It is estimated that before one timber tree is felled and conveyed out of the forest, about a hundred non-economic trees usually die in the process. Most of these trees are of medicinal value. For instance the bark of a species of Mahogany called Kechee in the local Gonja language has for centuries been used to prepare herbal medicine that are used to treat pneumonia, piles and other stomach troubles. This variety of mahogany, experts say is stronger than most timber species, making it a hot commodity. Timber is Ghana's third exchange earner after cocoa and gold, drawing closes to US$300 million into the national accounts every year. Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Britain are the largest importers.

The Minister of Lands and Forestry, Kasanga recently said the government had decided to strictly enforce policies and associated legislation on forestry to ensure sustainable natural resource and bio-diversity conservation in the country. The Minister said the new initiative has become necessary as a result of the alarming level of degradation and depletion of the country's forests. But whether this government, like the previous one has the political will to curb the commercialisation of the forest remains to be seen.

The government is at the moment locked in a tussle with timer firms over the allocation of Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUCs). The TUCs are supposed to spell out more concessions for timber companies over a stipulated period after which they are renewed. The Association of Timber Milling Organisations (ATMO) recently raised an alarm that some of its members had run out of concessions and were operating at a loss. They threatened to lay off some staff unless government approved more concessions for their operations. As at July last year, the deadlock had not been resolved, so some companies laid off their workers as planned. The battle lines were drawn since, with the government keeping to its position not to approve more rights allocation and the firms threatening to further reduce their staff, and with that create more unemployment.

Meanwhile bush-fires have over the years been wreaking havoc on some forest reserves. Bush burning, to many people in the hinterland is an annual festival, which must be observed at all cost. A report on the menace of bush-fires in the Brong Ahafo Region in the east released recently indicates that four major forest reserves have been destroyed over the years. The report said during the last dry season, a sacred groove from which the Tano River, main source of drinking water to the people on Sunyani, the Capital of Brong Ahafo Region takes its source was also burnt.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Manager of the Forestry Services Division of the Forestry Commission, Kwakye Ameyaw lamented that as a result of bush-fires, a number of cocoa farms have been destroyed forcing some farmers to decide not to cultivate the crop which earns the country some US$500 million annually. Ghana, which is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, is noted for supplying premium cocoa beans to the world market.

But the fortunes of the crop have been on the decline since 1983 when many cocoa farms were razed to the ground by bush-fires. Earnings from the crop slumped to an all time low of US$670 per tonne in 1998. The drop of the price on the world market ultimately affected the producer price, which the government paid to the farmers, thus discouraging them from increasing their yield. The situation seems to have changed, because the current government has showed seriousness in revamping the industry. Since January 2000, the government has embarked on mass spraying of cocoa, using the unemployed youth who migrated from the cocoa producing areas to the urban centres in search of white colour jobs. The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Marfo says the aim of the mass spraying exercise is to rid cocoa farms of insects and improve yield within two years in a bid to regain Ghana's leading producer status.

The alarming rate at which the forest is losing its cover has raised concerns on the need to educate the rural folk on environmental preservation. Green Earth Organisation, last December held a workshop in the Brong Ahafo Region, where illegal timber operations have been on the rise. The workshop under the theme " The Role of the Community in Bush-fires Prevention" was organised for selected people in the area of environmental protection. The workshop was aimed at sensitising the participants on ways to curb bush-fires as the country enters the dry season. Every year bush-fires destroy, human lives, food items and livestock and other property running into millions of dollars. Even the negative impact of tree felling and bush-fires has affected the water level of the Akosombo Dam. Built in the 60s with funds from Russia and the United States, the dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, which supplies power to Ghana, Togo and Benin, all in West Africa.

But over the years, environmental degradation around the source of the dam has caused reduced inflow of water into the dam, thus reducing the water level and the dam's ability to generate enough power. Since the beginning of February this year residents of Accra and other big cities have been experiencing frequent power outages due to the low level of water in the dam. The situation has raised fresh questions about the sustainability of hydroelectric power generation. That notwithstanding, the government has invited bids for the construction of the Bui Dam, near Brong Ahafo Region. Plans for the construction of the dam have been on the drawing board for the past twenty years, but lack of political will, coupled with concerns of environmental degradation have done little to resuscitate the project.

Perhaps heeding to the writing on the wall, the government has had to resort to thermal power generation to supplement the hydropower from Akosombo. That too is proving too costly to maintain because the Volta River Authority (VRA), which runs the thermal plant says it spends millions of dollars monthly in importing light crude oil for the plant. VRA hopes when the proposed West Africa Gas Pipeline becomes operational it would convert the thermal plant to operate on gas, which would be supplied from Nigeria.