The Western regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah has urged the Forestry Commission and the Lands and Natural Resource Ministry give attention to bamboo as an alternative to timber.
He says just as China and other nations are making use of bamboo for development, the Forestry Commission and the sector ministry can consider it in its budget to ensure efficient propagation for use as an alternative to timber.
The Minister was speaking at the Forestry Commission’s Chief Executive’s briefing and Staff recognition awards in Takoradi when he made the comments, indicating that bamboo can help reduce poverty in the country.
“We believe that Bamboo can also be alternative to the normal timber species that we have. If you go to china and other countries they are able to use bamboo to eradicate poverty, and we believe that it is time the forestry commission and the ministry of lands and natural resources in raising funds for forest plantation, raise some money for machinery so that as we have bamboo we process it for hard use and into other products,” he indicated.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, John Allotey, listed the lack of resources for its personnel as a major handicap preventing illegalities in the forest reserves across the country.
He said the activities of illegal mining and logging in the forest reserves continue to be a major challenge though the Commission is doing its best through the implementation of the Rapid Response Team under the Forestry Services Commission to clamp down on the menace. They, however, lack the needed resources.
“The key challenge confronting us today is how to combat the issue of illegal mining. Though our Rapid Response Team is doing so well, we need to equip them, [because] they have limited logistics to be able to move in their numbers and run multiple operations at the same time.
“So, this area we will need support from the board and the management to develop some programmes that will yield more funds that will be able to resource some of these units,”
he stated.
