Company replants Tain reserve
Form Ghana, a private company with interest in forestry, in conjunction with the Forestry Commission (FC), is embarking on a massive reforestation programme in the degraded Tain II Forest Reserve in the Brong Ahafo Region.
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For the next seven years, the company is expected to plant both indigenous tree species such as Wawa and Mahogany and exotic ones like teak on a 14, 000 hectare forest reserve.
Out of the total land area, 640 hectares have been earmarked for plantation this year on the hitherto natural reserve, as a result of persistent bush fires and activities of illegal chainsaw operators in the vicinity.
Mr Justice Nimo, the Plantation Supervisor of FORM Ghana, who disclosed this to the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Ms Barbara Serwaa Asamoah, during her visit to the site, also indicated that 65 workers had been engaged on the project and were preparing the nursery for transplanting.
He said for next year, the company intended to expand the plantation to 2, 000 Ha, which meant that more people would have to be employed during the peak period of planting, for pegging, planting, weeding and spraying.
According to Mr Nimo, the NGO started the project as a pilot at Akomadan in the Ashanti Region, where 3, 500 tree species had been planted in the degraded Afrensu Brouma and Asubima forest reserves
Ms Gloria Mensah, the Technical Officer in charge of the nursery, told the Daily Graphic that 15 hectares of land had been projected for nursery this year, out of which seven had already been prepared, with 3, 500 beds raised and planted with teak seeds.
The Deputy Minister, who was accompanied by the Brong Ahafo Regional Manager of the Forest Services (FSD) of the FC, Mr Thomas Okyere and other officials of the commission from Accra, expressed concern about the wanton degradation of the country’s forest cover, saying that the situation was serious and needed urgent intervention.
She also visited another reforestation project at Abesim in the Sunyani Municipality, which is aimed at protecting the Tano River, which is the main source of potable water for the people in the Brong Ahafo Region from drying up.
The project, according to Ms Asamoah, started on a 34-hectare land along the river bank in 2010 as part of the government’s national plantation programme.
From Sunyani, the deputy minster and her entourage visited the Bui Hydroelectric Project site in the Banda District to acquaint herself with the progress of work, and the Bui National Park, where some illegal mining (galamsey) activities had started.
In his briefing, the Park Manager, Mr Samuel Darko Akonor, indicated that poaching of hippopotamus in the reserve, lack of access roads, fishing and the menace of galamsey had been a source of worry to the management of the park, and called for the support of all stakeholders.
By Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah/Daily Graphic/Ghana