The Sunyani Forest District (SFD) of the Forestry Commission (FC) says it is collaborating with stakeholders in the timber industry to clamp down on activities of chainsaw operations and illegal logging and lumbering in the various forest reserves of the District.
Mr Francis Brobbey, the Sunyani Forest District Manager, said a joint operations team comprising the Rapid Response Team of the FC, forest guards, and timber companies under the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had been set up to undertake patrols in the various forest reserves in the district.
He was speaking at a meeting in Sunyani to devise measures to tackle illegal entry into the forest reserves in the district and expressed worry about the recurring activities of illegal chainsaw operations and lumbering, especially during the dry seasons.
Mr Yeboah said the team would take proactive measures to prevent unauthorised access to restricted areas within the forest reserves, saying “the team would always be present on the ground, day and night to preserve the reserves”.
He warned the public against unauthorised entry into the various forest reserves and indiscriminate cutting of trees, saying offenders would be prosecuted, and called for concerted efforts to preserve the nation’s forest reserves.
Mr Isaac N. Owulaku, the Administrator at the Messrs Oti Yeboah Company Limited, also warned illegal chainsaw operators to desist from entering the company’s concessions, saying their unscrupulous activities in the concessions were being monitored.
Other stakeholders also called for intensified efforts to arrest and prosecute illegal loggers operating in the forest reserves.
They also called on the judiciary and the police to facilitate speedy prosecution of suspects of illegal logging and imposed harsher sanctions on them to serve as a deterrent to like-minded ones.
According to them, the rapid depletion of the forest and deforestation threaten human survival, hence the need to preserve the forest reserves.
GNA
