When Ghana's forestry and natural resources minister, the Hon. Mike Hammah, inspected a forest reserve in the Brong Ahafo Region recently, he and his team chanced upon a group of illegal loggers, in the process of sawing a tree they had felled into planks.
Reporting back to the traditional authorities of the area, after his tour of the forest reserve, the minister admitted that the government alone could not deal with the problem of illegal logging - and that it would need the cooperation and assistance of civil society groups, concerned individuals and traditional authorities, to police and protect Ghana's fast-dwindling remaining forest cover.
Unfortunately, illegal logging is widespread in the forest belt of Ghana - and a daily occurrence that is said to be controlled mostly by wealthy criminal syndicates, which use poor rural people to do their dirty business for them.
Let us be perfectly clear. Our ruling elites (including those who constitute the government of the day!) need to show leadership in this vital matter. They must adopt a creative approach to the protection of Ghana's rain forests.
Could the government of Ghana not decide, for example, to rush a bill through Parliament, under a certificate of urgency, and have it passed into law, so that all payments from wealthy nations' Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) to Ghana are ring-fenced: for funding forest protection nationwide; ditto the creation of new protected areas; fund community-based eco-tourism as tools-for-conservation projects; as well as reafforestation and the establishment of new tree-plantations - and specify that such funds can only be utilised in rural Ghana?
And could that not pave the way for part of such funds to be used to pay new rural communal enterprises, to be known perhaps as Rural Forest Protection Co-operatives (RFPC), made up entirely of local people from fringe-forest communities, to protect Ghana's remaining rain forests?
Surely, in the 21st century ICT age, it should not be beyond the capability of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to enter into agreements with the Nigerian Armed Forces and the US African Command, to leverage data from their satellites to provide it with real-time surveillance capability - to enable it see what goes on in the rain forests of Ghana, round the clock?
Would that not give the GAF the capability to, where possible, and weather conditions, including the extent of cloud-cover, permitting, take photographs of illegal loggers going about their nation-wrecking crime - and direct FC officials and RFPC's to apprehend those criminals?
When Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, paid a two-day visit to Ghana, one hoped that Ghana's ministers for forests and natural resources; environment, science and technology; and local government and rural development, would seek a meeting with their Norwegian counterpart, Erik Solheim, who is Norway's minister of environment and international development - with a view to taking steps towards the working out of a Low Carbon Development Strategy deal, between their two nations.
Mr. Erik Solheim, accompanied the Norwegian Crown Prince and Crown Princess, during their two-day official visit to Ghana.
Norway has a LCDS deal with Guyana. Although criticised in certain quarters for paradoxically leading to some deforestation in that South American nation, a similar agreement with Ghana, could, if the incentives it contains that have unwittingly led to an increase in deforestation in Guyana are removed, indeed create sustainable wealth-creation opportunities in all of rural Ghana, from north to south, and from east to west.
Luckily, it is still not too late to work towards doing a similar deal between Ghana and Norway. Perhaps the three ministers can put together a dedicated team of experts from their various ministries, to work on a project proposal, which improves on the agreement between Norway and Guyuna.
Such an agreement ought to devote all the Low Carbon Development Strategy funds from Norway, solely to sustainable rural development in Ghana. It can be put forward to the government of Norway, through their Norwegian colleague minister, Erik Solheim.
Could Low Carbon Development Strategy funds from Norway, ring-fenced and earmarked to underpin the creation of a new green economy for rural Ghana, not improve living standards and the quality of life of fringe-forest communities countrywide: by providing sustainable wealth-creation opportunities for rural people - such as the members of the aforementioned RFPC's made up of local people from fringe-forest communities?
And furthermore, could District Assemblies nationwide, not partner local farmer-based organisations and fringe-forest communities to establish new tree plantations, in public private partnerships (PPP), to help rural Ghana leverage the burgeoning international carbon markets too: in carbon sequestration deals between developed nation energy companies and District Assembly/rural communities in Ghana, for example?
The FC could be tasked to provide capacity-building input for such PPP's.
And in the final analysis, could that not help halt the rural-urban drift that is denuding so many rural communities of their younger generation - and blighting the future prospects of much of rural Ghana?
One certainly hopes that the three ministers (all of whom are dynamic and hard-working individuals, incidentally!), the Hon. Mike Hammah; the Hon. Sherry Aryittey; and the Hon. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, will take this up together - and take steps to bring it to fruition, going forward: and help save Ghana's rain forests and secure most of rural Ghana's economic future that way. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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