PROTECTING OUR HERITAGE (JAN 21, 2010)

A large proportion of the country’s forest cover has been depleted through the activities of illegal loggers, bush burning and unscientific farming practices.
The country’s forest cover, which was estimated at 8.2 million hectares in 1900, has now been reduced to just 1.2 million hectares.
We do not need a soothsayer to tell us that the data on the forest cover are a manifestation of the phenomenon of desertification, on which action should be taken now to avoid risking our lives.
The managers of our forest resources face a Herculean task in trying to police them and encourage the people to protect the country’s natural endowments.
Certain practices in the countryside have fuelled the depletion of the country’s forest resources. These include farming methods whereby the forests are cleared and burnt for planting and trees felled for charcoal burning.
The land tenure system does not also lend support to the efforts to protect the vegetation because many families depend on a particular piece of land for farming, making it highly impossible to engage in shifting cultivation.
Although there is a lot to be gained from agro-forestry and mixed farming, the concept is not very popular with our farmers.
It appears that our people have forgotten the popular adage, “When the last tree dies, the last man dies”, and have engaged in negative practices in their effort to exploit the resources for their upkeep.
It is worrying that the trade in illegal logging has become very sophisticated, with the use of arms to protect those involved and intimidate people whose livelihoods are threatened by operators.
The Daily Graphic commends the government for launching the “Greening the Environment for a Better Ghana Agenda” aimed at arresting the depletion of the country’s forest and creating more than 51,000 jobs for the youth in the next five years.
What is even more reassuring is the directive from President J.E.A. Mills to the National Security apparatus to strengthen their networks to ensure the swift arrest and prosecution of illegal loggers and chainsaw operators whose activities constitute environment degradation.
At the core of the problem is the boldness and ease with which the illegal loggers carry out their activities throughout the country, suggesting the connivance of certain elements within the security agencies.
Every day, truckloads of timber are transported on our roads, while the security personnel at the barriers and other checkpoints look on in helpless amazement because of the endorsement from official or high places.
Those illegal operators do not even pay revenue to the state, while their activities contribute immensely to the degradation of the forest.
The Daily Graphic is happy that the people have been offered another opportunity to save the vegetation through the afforestation programme.
Let us, however, remind ourselves of past initiatives and recollect why they failed so that we do not replicate those same bad work ethics during the implementation of the present programme.
The Daily Graphic believes that if everybody makes it a point to plant a tree and nurture it to grow, we may be on the path to restoring the country’s green cover.
Our very existence on earth is at stake and the best we can do is to expose those who endanger the vegetation through illegal logging and farming in forest reserves.