ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS — OKYENHENE (SPREAD)

THE Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amotia Ofori Panin, has called for the strict enforcement of environmental laws to protect the country’s rapidly dwindling natural resources, especially forest reserves, from illegal chainsaw operators whose activities are gradually posing a threat to the entire population.
“Our ability to subject illegal chainsaw operators to the full rigours of the law, without any favour or political interference, will serve as a deterrent to others who are bent on destroying our forests in the pursuit of their selfish interests,” he said.
Speaking at the launch of the Okyeman Environmental Day celebration at Kyebi last Friday, the Okyenhene said, “If persuasion fails to make illegal timber loggers abide by environmental laws, then force must be applied to stop them.”
The event, which coincided with the World Environment Day, was aimed at creating environmental awareness among the people residing in Okyeman and was also used to plant a number of trees in most of the degraded communities.
According to the Okyenhene, the incessant depletion of more than 80 per cent of the forest reserves in Okyeman and its environs over the years by syndicates of chainsaw operators was seriously undermining efforts to protect the forests and other natural resources in the area.
Osagyefuo Ofori Panin indicated that the commitment of the traditional authorities and the people had led to the confiscation of more than 200 chainsaws and truckloads of illegal lumber suspected to have been obtained from the forests in the area.
He, therefore, urged the government and Ghanaians in general to adopt a more positive attitude towards the environment as part of their contribution to curbing the effects of global warming in the country.
For his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said the country’s total forest cover of 8.2 million hectares had been reduced to about one million hectares as of the end of the last century.
“This situation, caused by bushfires, agriculture, logging, mining, human settlement, indiscriminate disposal of human and material waste, has made the country’s forest resources to be considered as one of the highest degraded in the developing world,” he stated.
He, therefore, expressed the government’s readiness to collaborate with security agencies, traditional authorities and other stakeholders to protect the forests from selfish individuals, especially chainsaw operators.