Ghana’s last remaining tracts of primary forest can only be found within areas granted official protection. “FoE then collaborate[s] with the Forestry Commission for verification of the alerts and then take action.”. Some of these challenges are lack of proper waste management, deforestation, pollution, land or soil degradation, desertification and resource depletion among others. Deforestation in Ghana is a research-based analytical study that explains the disconnect between the declared deforestation policy intentions and their outcomes in Ghana. Some of the external financing underwrote these institutional changes, while much of the rest financed forestry management and research as well as equipment for logging, saw milling, and manufacturing. In the transition zone of Ghana, bush fires annually cause havoc on forest resources Several areas of the reserve are completely devoid of large trees, while the roar of chainsaws is ever-present, operated with impunity. According to the World Cocoa Foundation, 2.3 million hectares of rainforest were cleared in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to make way for cocoa farms between 1988 and 2007. In the mid-1980s, the government embarked on a US$36 million rehabilitation project to boost the company's production. Between 1990 and 2000, Ghana lost an average of 135,000 hectares of forest per year; amounting to an average annual deforestation rate of … “Because of the low number of the officials of the Forestry Commission, we still have high incidence of chainsawing both outside and inside the forest reserves,” he said. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. The focus of the analysis is the probable effect of the Act on the timber industry.2 Through a discussion of the Act's salient provisions on costs As a consequence, log production rose 65 percent in 1984-87, and export revenues rose 665 percent in 1983-88. Between January and November 1994, exports amounted to 919,000 tons and earned US$212 million. Sources on the ground say that illegal logging done at the hands of Ghanaian nationals as well as foreigners, especially Chinese nationals, appears to be the main cause of deforestation in the reserve. “If you have come to look for trees in this forest then forget it because we have cut them all,” said a chainsaw operator who was illegally felling trees in the reserve to sell to a local buyer. Furthermore, the old Ghana Timber Marketing Board was disbanded and replaced by two bodies, the Timber Export Development Board—responsible for marketing and pricing, and the Forest Products Inspection Bureau—responsible for monitoring contracts, maintaining quality standards, grading products, and acting as a watchdog for illegal transactions. To end deforestation, Barry Callebaut maps cocoa farms in its direct supply chain within 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) of protected forest areas in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon. Bush fires, set to clear land and aided by the dry harmattan season from November to March, have consumed large swaths of forest. Here, illegal logging is also underway. 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Introduct The government later extended the list and imposed high duties on other species, planning to phase out log and air-dried timber exports altogether by 1994. [1], Instead, the government hoped to increase sales of wood products to replace earnings from logs. Forestry practices, wildfires and, in … When land is deforested, plant and animal diversity can be lost. It was also to share and discuss outcomes of a … It is assessed that more than 90 percent of the high forest they have been enrolled since the late 1940s with current rates of deforestation being 5% for possible later use what’s more, 2% in reservations (Tamakloe, North Dakota). Forestry, deforestation and biodiversity in Ghana This study seeks to examine the causes and consequences of forest loss and therefore biodiversity loss in Ghana. At this rate of logging, Ghana’s forests would disappear in the next ten years and Ghana would become a net importer of wood (Forest Watch Ghana 2004). Our EIN or tax ID is 45-3714703. Written by Senyo Kofi Agbleze & Freda Yamorti Gbande, TFF Ambassadors from Ghana. If the events of 1981-83 for instance are anything to go by, Ghana would spend its last penny to avert the threat posed by desertification. Community leader Agya Bomba blamed the now-defunct Ayum Timber Company for the increase in illegal logging in Bia Tano. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page. Problem Statement The deforestation rate has been surprisingly high in Ghana. factors. Log production declined by 66 percent during 1970- 81 and sawed timber by 47 percent. This is an extremely important initiative because, in Ghana, approximately 15 per cent of deforestation is being caused by cocoa farming, as it’s our main export, while almost 800,000 farming families are involved with the cocoa trade. To help tackle deforestation issues in Ghana, we, Senyo Kofi Agbleze and Freda Yamorti Gbande, put together an initiative known as the Green Cast Project.With our role as TFF Ambassadors, we want to help create awareness about deforestation as an issue leading to potential food insecurity in rural communities. Scandals have been reported in Ghana's forestry industry since 1986, and they erupted again in early 1992. Ghana’s last remaining tracts of primary forest can only be found within areas granted official protection. He said that a concession once leased by the company had since been invaded by illegal loggers, including former company staff. The second forest guard told Mongabay that most of the owners of the sawmills had no permit to work in the reserve, but continued to log its forests. He also blamed deforestation on forest-dependent communities, saying “their continuous expansion is destructive to the reserves in which they live.”. 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