Forest fires causes 3% GDP loss

Page 13, Feb 7, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

FOREST fires have caused an estimated annual loss of about three per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the last 15 years, a Deputy Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Mr Andrew Adjei-Yeboah, has disclosed.
“Wildfires, particularly in the transitional and savannah zones, have been the most significant cause of deforestation and forest degradation in Ghana,” he said.
Mr Adjei-Yeboah made the disclosure when he appeared before Parliament on Tuesday to answer some questions posed by some Members of Parliament (MPs) concerning his ministry.
The MP for Sefwi Wiawso, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, had asked the minister about the extent of depletion of forest reserves and whether the country could boast of forest reserves by 2020 if the trend continued.
Mr Adjei-Yeboah said according to a Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) Report, 2005, the total forest area as of 1990 declined from over 2,047,000 hectares to approximately 1,738,978 hectares in 2000.
He explained further that for the period between 2000 and 2005, the forest cover reduced further from 1,738,978 hectares to 1,607,705 hectares.
Mr Adjei-Yeboah said, however, that there had been a number of government and donor support interventions that had helped to check further deforestation.
Those interventions included the Wildfire Management Project, the Forest Resource Use Management Project (FORUM), Participatory Forest Resource Management (PAFORM) and the Northern Savannah Biodiversity Project, he said.
The deputy minister stated that a recent satellite image covering forest zones revealed improved vegetation cover in the forest area where wildfire projects were operational.
He added that the National Forest Plantation Development Programme launched by President Kufuor had resulted in the re-forestation of an estimated 116,840 hectares of degraded forest reserve lands.
The deputy minister also informed the House that the ministry had established a project for the development of 10,000 acres of oil palm estates within four mining communities in the Wassa West District of the Western Region.
He said the measure was part of the implementation of the results of a study conducted that came out with possible alternative livelihood projects that could be undertaken in mining communities in the country.
Answering another question by Mr Aidoo, Mr Adjei-Yeboah explained that the objective of the initiative was to galvanise existing farmer groups in the target communities to establish producer-shareholding commercial entities to cultivate oil palm, among others.
He also told the House in an answer to a question by the MP for Ningo-Prampram, Mr E.T. Mensah, that the government’s long-term vision was to develop the Shai Hills Resource Reserve as a major tourist attraction, in partnership with the private sector.
He gave assurance that the reserve was not being developed into a housing estate, explaining that rather the land outside the boundaries of the reserve was being developed by private sector developers.