TO AVAAZ.COM MEMBERS!

Hello Avaaz Members,

Please help us protect one of only two upland evergreen rain forests in Ghana - the biodiversity-rich and unique Atewa Range Forest Reserve (and the off-reserve forestland in private hands that has been included in the concession given to Kibi Goldfields, which is owned by a Ghanaian ambassador, Mr. Saka, and his partners: which includes the Akim Abuakwa Traditional Council).

In addition to the threat posed to that vital rain forest, by the surface gold miners, incredibly, as we speak, a timber company, Birim Timber Complex, said to be from Akim Oda, in Ghana’s Eastern Region, is also busy cutting down trees at Akim Abuakwa Juaso – in the equally biodiversity-rich lower reaches of the foothills of the Atewa Range.

How can such environmentally-irresponsible corporate behavior be tolerated at time of global warming – and in a part of the world it is having the most negative impact on, I ask? The question is: Who, in officialdom, gave them permission to do so?

Below is a link to a rapid assessment survey carried out in the area (designated a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area) by Conservation International: https://www.conservation.org/.../RAP47_Atewa_Reserve_Ghana_Jun-2006.pdf

There is yet another link to an article protesting about the wanton destruction going on there, which is posted on my google web-blog: http://wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com/2010/08/to-epas-executive-director.html (Please cut and paste each link separately unto your web-browser's URL!).

Unfortunately, the few powerful crooks amongst the many honest and decent people, in the government of President Mills, who, incidentally, is the most honest individual ever elected into office as president of Ghana thus far, since the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1966, are making it well nigh impossible for us to stop Mr. Saka's rapacious company (and its equally greedy partner-in-crime, the duplicitous Solar Mining Company Limited!) from destroying an important part of Ghana's natural heritage.

Please help us stop them, by shaming the government of Ghana into halting this crime against humanity: Please flood the Ghana Embassy in your country with appeals to President Mills to act quickly to stop this intolerable disregard for our nation’s laws by the wealthy rogues behind it. Thanks very much.

Best wishes,

Kofi.

Tel(powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0)27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartfone: + 233 (0)30 2976238.