The Arboretum at Bonsu
It has been a quiet plant reserve for many years, but not since May after the completion of the canopy walk.
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The avenue of palms lining the entrance to the arboretum welcomes visitors to one of the major protected forests in the country.
The Arboretum – in the heart of Bonsu, a predominantly farming community in the East Akim Municipality in the Eastern Region – now attracts about 200 visitors on the average during public holidays.
The canopy walk has become a perfect attraction that draws the crowd, but the real fascination is the walk through the thick forest that has been preserved for more than a century.
A young tour guide, Mr Simon Akanyagble, struck the Dahoma tree (Piptadeniastrum Africanum) which made the noise that helped people in distress to be located.
The plant, which is curvy at the bottom and has been in the forest for more than 130 years, also served as a haven for hunters and farmers fleeing wild animals in the past,he explained.
The walk through the deep reserve brought even greater knowledge of plants concerning their names and uses.
Walk
The exciting experience had quickened and compressed what, according to Mr Akanyagble, should have been a two-hour tour across the 165 hactres (40 acres) of forest reserve into an hour’s expedition in the wild. But the contrasts and contradictions that defined life in the forest were even more interesting.
The serendipidity, a fruit native to the Eastern Region, tasted 1,000 times sweeter than sugar, but the 'Kyenkyen' (Antiaris toxicania), standing just a stone’s throw from the miracle fruit, according to Mr Akanyable, was highly poisonous.
"The leaves are highly poisonous and can kill in five seconds if one chews and swallows it," he stressed.
Also in the forest are the miracle berry, a sweetener, Ethiopian pepper, calabash nutmeg and grain of paradise, all spices.
Mr Akanyagble plucked the still sprouting branch of the Garcinia Kola and began to chew the stick, claiming that “research had found that it could halt the spread of the Ebola virus in an infected person.”
For an ailment still decimating the human population in parts of West Africa since it first broke out around Congo more than 30 years ago, this piece of news could make many flock to Bonsu to grab their own stick in case of any eventuality even before the efficacy of the plant is ascertained.
For now, however, the controversial giant Garcinia Kola tree and the still sprouting ones stand still in the wild Arboretum without the disturbance that could be triggered by a mad rush.
The arboretum
The Oxford dictionary defines arboretum as' a botanical garden devoted to trees. Others define it as a facility where trees and shrubs are cultivated for exhibition.
The Bonsu Arboretum is a protected forest reserve. It is managed by the Plant Genetic Resource and Research Institute (PGRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The arboretum hosts all indigenous trees found on the Akim land. The trees are made up of timber species, medicinal, rare trees and fruits.
In all, there are about 135 different species of trees and 110 species of birds.
The herb garden also has 100 different species of herbs useful for food, medicine and aromatics.
Half of the area is a semi-deciduous forest, while the other half is made up of indigenous trees along with fruits, nuts and timber tree species.
The history of the Arboretum dates back to the early 1900s but a Director at the CSIR, Dr Samuel Boateng, told the Daily Graphic in an interview prior to the walk that it became an Ecotoursim site on March 5, 2003.
Among the cherished assets of the arboretum is the four-room self-contained guest house of colonial architecture built by two Englishmen, Mr Frank W. Thompson and Mr David Gillet.
It was originally part of the Bunso land leased to a gold dredging company in 1905 by the Akim Abuakwa State.
The arboretum is located 120km north of Accra and 150km south of Kumasi, and off the Accra-Kumasi Highway at the Bunso Junction.
Canopy walk
The need to generate revenue internally compelled the PGRRI to partner a private company for the construction of the canopy walk, which is now the second in West Africa, after the Kakum National Park in the Central Region.
The canopy walk is not for the fainthearted. It is 280 metres long and 35 metres high, meandering through giant trees in the forest.
Obviously, the canopy walk holds the magic wand, pulling tourists from all over the country and beyond, and the result, according to Dr Boateng, has been exponential, particularly during public holidays.
Perhaps, with more investment, the arboretum could become one of Ghana's major tourists attractions.
