Forestry Commission receives vehicles for land reclamation project
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has handed over eight vehicles to the Forestry Commission to facilitate field work on the reclamation of mined-out lands under the Ghana Forest and Investment Programme (GFIP).
The GFIP is a targeted programme under the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) that aims to finance country-specific effort to address the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation.
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The Toyota-make vehicles are the first batch of 13 vehicles worth $800,000 that were funded by the SCF through the World Bank.
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Forestry, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, handed the vehicles over to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Mr Sulemana Nyadia, in Accra yesterday.
He said the vehicles would be distributed to the Forestry Commission's offices at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region; Bibiani in the Western Region and Kyebi in the Eastern Region.
Additional financing
Mr Owusu-Bio explained that following the successful implementation of the GFIP over the past five years, Ghana got additional funding from the SCF through the World Bank to augment the implementation of an the Enhancing Natural Forest and Agroforest Landscape (ENFALP).
"The main objective of the additional financing is to augment the government's efforts in reducing deforestation and forest degradation due to artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) in forest landscapes and enhancement of private investment in forest plantation development, as well as community job creation in high forest zones in areas such as Bono, Bono East, Western, Western
North, Ashanti and the Eastern regions," he said.
He said the vehicles were to ensure effective monitoring and to lead to sustainable project implementation.
The Atwima Nwabiagya North Member of Parliament (MP) urged the project management team to take good care of the vehicles to ensure that the project achieved the desired development objectives.
"The vehicles must be strictly used to support project activities in mined-out areas and monitoring of plantation development activities," he said.
Timely move
For his part, Mr Nyadia described the procurement of the vehicles as a major boost to effective monitoring of the GFIP.
He said the Forestry Commission would strengthen collaboration with other partners to protect mined-out areas and to promote private participation in forest plantation development.
The GFIP Project Manager, Mr Tabi Agyarko, also said the vehicles would facilitate field work and the monitoring activities by designated officials.