National Forest Plantation Dev

Page 15, Dec 2, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

CABINET has given approval for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to launch a National Forest Plantation Development Programme (NFPDP) in January next year.
The objective of the programme is to increase the tree cover of the country through massive recruitment of reafforestation work gangs to improve environmental quality and reduce the wood deficit situation in the country.
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Henry Ford Kamel, told Parliament in an answer to a question that the new expanded NFPDP was unique and distinct from previous plantation programmes since it would involve the establishment of plantations in all district assemblies in the country.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima Nwabiagya, Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, who posed the question wanted to know what plans the ministry was initiating to further expand the over 100,000 acres of forest plantations established under the Presidential Special Initiative on afforestation by the previous government.
Mr Kamel explained that in 2010, the programme would be implemented in 100 districts and 300 jobs would be created in each district, thus creating a total of 30,000 jobs.
He said that in 2011 and beyond the programme was expected to cover all the 170 districts in the country and thus create a total of 51,000 jobs.
The Deputy Minister further explained that the plantation development strategy would include woodlot establishments; planting of fruit trees, rehabilitation of mangrove forests and urban forestry and fire management.
He said the programme would be carried out in both degraded forest reserves and outside the reserves, explaining that in the degraded reserves, over 400,000 hectares of land area had already been identified and mapped out by the Forestry Commission.
Mr Kamel added that since the programme had been designed to cover all districts in the country, negotiations would be made with landowners in districts which might not have forest reserves for off-reserve areas to be planted.
The deputy minister stated that the programme would be funded from mining levies, HIC, District Assembly Common Fund, Plantation Development Fund and Mining Development Fund, among others.
He called on the MPs to fully participate in the programme when it was launched since it had a great potential for job creation, improvement in rural incomes, restoration of forest cover and maintenance of environmental quality
The MP for Zabzugu/Tatale, Mr John Bennam Jabaah, also asked the minister when government would start mining the iron ore deposit at Sheini in the Zabzugu/Tatale District.
Answering the question, Mr Kamel informed the House that a private company, Inland Ghana Mines Limited, had been granted a six-month non-exclusive Due Diligence Permit over the area, adding that should the due diligence confirm the suitability of the grades and tonnage available, the company would prepare a feasibility report to the ministry.
He said until a feasibility report had been received from the company, no definite timelines could be given for the commencement of the mining of the iron ore.
Meanwhile, the debate on the government’s financial policy and budget for 2010 continued in the House yesterday.
The NDC MP for Ashiaman, Mr Alfred Agbeshie, who was the first to catch the Speaker’s eye called for more effort to equip Parliament to make the work of the House easy.
The NDC MP was not happy that the government had not taken steps to renovate the Job 600 for use as offices by MPs as promised during the campaign.
He expressed concern about the office building of the former Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs which had been taken over by the Castle, and said that it would have been proper for the government to have allowed MPs to use the building.
Mr Agbesi commended the Minister of Finance for the budget, which he described as having a lot of promises, and called for more efforts to ensure the number of programmes and policies outlined in the document to improve the lot of Ghanaians.
For his part, the NPP MP for Tano North, Mr Enerst Akubuor Debrah, pointed out inconsistencies in the budget on targets set out by the budget to increase cocoa production in the country by 2012.
He explained that while in one breath the budget stated that government would double the current 750,000 tonnes by 2012, in another breath the budget predicted an increase of the current production level to one million tonnes by 2012.
While calling for an increase in the current producer price of cocoa to curb smuggling of the commodity to nearby countries, the MP also advocated the provision of credit facilities to farmers in general to enable them to increase their yields.