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Forest fringe communities tasked to protect forests

Forest fringe communities tasked to protect forests

The Head of the Collaborative Forest Management Department at the Forestry Commission of Ghana (FC), Mr Alexander Asare, has stated that the introduction of five per cent tax on stumpage value to be paid by timber contractors to forest fringe communities would help encourage the communities to protect forest reserves in the country.

In an interview after a national training programme for stakeholders on new protocols for improving social responsibility agreements with such communities at Akyawkrom, Mr Asare said there was the need to identify new ways of meeting required agreements with the communities.

He said under the new protocols on social responsibility agreements, communities that were located within 5km radius from the forest reserves and known as forest fringe communities needed to become beneficiaries of the agreements.

Formation of SRA committees

He observed that a lot of the time benefits that were received from protocols on forest preservation went in undesirable directions and as such called on forest fringe communities to set up committees on social responsibility to ensure judicious use of benefits that accrued to them. 

He was of the view that in order to avoid misuse of monies from stumpage value, members of social responsibility committees set up by forest fringe communities would have to engage in proper negotiations and open bank account and decide on the kind of projects the resources would be used for.

Rapid Response Task Force 

He said at the moment, the country’s forests faced danger from illegal farming, illegal mining, illegal logging of timber through chainsaw operations and illegal expansion of settlements by forest fringe communities.

For these reasons, he said, the Forestry Commission had put in place a task force to respond quickly to such illegal activities hindering the work of the commission.

He said because the commission was facing challenges with regard to prosecuting offenders did not mean it would not do anything. He said the commission would continue to arrest and put before court people who infringed on laws protecting the country’s forests.

Motivation and way forward

He said the Forestry Commission had embarked on an afforestation programme in an attempt to restore forests that had been lost.

He called for proper maintenance of forests as a means of attracting investors.

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