Unknown individuals have damaged over 14,000 Green Ghana tree seedlings in Abokwame, a farming village near Yonguase in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality of the Eastern region.
The seedlings, which included Danya, Mahogany, Cedrela, Prekese, Cibar Minlliner, Papao, and other tree species, were meant for reforestation efforts at the Bukonor Forest Reserve. However, they were sprayed with gramoxone weedicide, destroying them.
According to Mr. Ebenezer Agyakwa, the Somanya Forest District manager, who oversees several districts including Asuogyaman, Okere, and Akuapem North and South, Lower and Upper Manya Krobo, the destruction is suspected to be the work of farmers in the area who cultivate crops within the forest reserve.
Mr. Agyakwa stated that the forest reserves are facing significant challenges, with all 11 reserves, including Boti Forest Reserve, Abobeng Forest Reserve, Dawa Forest Reserve, and Anyamoni Forest Reserve, being steep and rocky, making it difficult to implement reforestation efforts. Despite this, the team had planned to implement all plantation models this year at the Bukunor Forest Reserve.
“We decided to untake the tree planting here because the land is flat and fertile to green the area and safeguard the land from illegal farmers encroaching on the forest reserve after it was abandoned due to the construction of Akosombo, which overflowed and took over some part of the forest some years ago.
“Since the water is not overflowing, we have decided to re-forest the remaining part of the forest reserve” he said.
He added that they delivered the seedlings to the forest reserve last weekend, and by Thursday last week, they had planted seedlings covering 5 hectares with support from the forest guards, deputy district managers, YEA members, district managers, and other senior staff.
He explained that because Friday was a taboo day in Abokwame village and Monday was the Eid-ul-Adha holiday, they went to the forest today to plant the remaining seedlings, only to discover that the plants had been destroyed with weedicide.
He said the action of the people was to prevent the Forestry Commission from carrying out its mandate of protecting and greening the forest.
Mr. Agyakwa stated that when they first started the project, they sensitized the community about modified Taungya systems, but the residents didn’t cooperate with them, so they ignored them and continued with their seedling planting project.
“When we informed the chief of the area of the incident, he instructed us to arrest everybody we discovered,” he added.
The forest manager said the 1974 forest protection order prohibits anybody from farming or even going into the forest to pluck a leaf without first obtaining an authorization from the Forestry Commission’s assistant district manager.
Meanwhile, residents are cultivating maize and cassava, and farm produce in the forest reserve.
He stated that the government has lost around 750,000 Ghana cedis worth of seedlings and that, as a result of the actions of the people, they will arrest all of them and destroy all of their corn crops and plantations because some of the seedlings that were planted last week have also been sprayed.
Mr. Nartey Djornobua, Yonguase’s community chief told Ghana News Agency that he had been briefed by forest authorities about the unfortunate circumstance and was disappointed.
He stated that forest staff should arrest everyone they come across in the vicinity in order to identify the individual responsible for the unusual incident.
“I believed that the arrest would help bring to justice those responsible for the seedling destruction,” he said.
Ghana’s forest resources are valuable national resources because one of the key sources of foreign exchange earnings is the timber resource. From an environmental standpoint, forests are essential for maintaining biological variety, watersheds, windbreaks, and tackling climate change.
