Forestry Commission sets up camps to protect forest reserves.
The Forestry Commission has taken a major step towards protecting the country’s forest reserves from further destruction by illegal miners following the inauguration of 10 forest protection camps and two checkpoints at hotspot areas.
The camps, sited at strategic locations on the fringes of the forest reserves, will serve as permanent bases for trained forest guards.
Forest protection camps
Equipped with communication gadgets and weapons, each camp comprises an office, four bedrooms, a fully furnished kitchen, and a place of convenience.
Seven of the camps situated in the Ashanti Region are located at the Mmoframfadwen and Anwiafutu portions of the Offin Shelterbelt Forest Reserve in the Nkawie District; Odaho and Kobro portions of the Apapraman Forest Reserve, as well as the Numereso, Watreso, and Bepotenten sections of the Oda River Forest Reserve in the Bekwai District.
The remaining three in the Western Region are located at Benso, Abrewa Nni Nkran, and Wassa Nkran portions of the Subri River Forest Reserve. The two newly constructed checkpoints are sited in Buru in Kintampo and Maluwe, near Wa.
A ceremony was held at the Oda River Forest Reserve, near Numereso in the Amansie Central District in the Ashanti Region, last Tuesday to symbolically inaugurate all the camps and checkpoints.
The forest protection camps have been set up as part of a strategic partnership between the government of the United Kingdom (UK), through its Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the Ghana government, through the Forestry Commission.
The partnership, which took effect from December last year, is meant to improve forest governance in the country by bolstering security to curb encroachment activities by illegal miners and other environmental criminals.
The timely intervention, through the support of the UK government, seeks to strengthen the capacity of the commission to deliver on its mandate of protecting, developing, and sustainably managing Ghana’s forests and wildlife resources.
Context
Although forests provide useful ecological and climate services to humans, the country’s 288 forest reserves have been under threat by illegal miners and other environmental criminals who destroy the forest landscape in search of gold, timber, and game.
As of February this year, the latest scientific study by the Forestry Commission revealed that a whopping 8,923.8 hectares of the country’s forest reserves, equivalent to 12,500 FIFA-standard football fields, had been heavily impacted by illegal mining activities.
The findings of the national satellite remote-sensing-based verification of mined-out areas in forest reserves revealed that the affected areas encompassed 45 forest reserves and a national park as of December 31, 2024.
Additionally, forest guards who have been trained to protect the forest reserves continue to suffer brutal attacks in the line of duty by the criminal elements.
Records from the Forestry Services Division (FSD) show that 34 field officers sustained life-threatening injuries from dastardly attacks by illegal miners over the past five years.
Daily Graphic’s checks at the Forestry Commission revealed that between 2017 and now, 23 staff from the Wildlife Division had either been killed or maimed by poachers and illegal chainsaw operators.
