By Nana Osei Kyeretwie
Tetekrom-Chiraa (B/R), June 12, GNA-Barima Minta Afari II, the chief of Chiraa in the Sunyani West Municipality of Bono Region, has appealed to local investors to invest in afforestation projects for sustainable development.
He said that type of investment had multiple benefits for the country, citing that in the medium to long term, the environment would be protected through climate change mitigation and consequently dried water bodies and other extinct forest resources could be restored.
The ‘Chiraahene’ (Chief of Chiraa) said if one of the cardinal objectives of investment was for the socio-economic progress of the populace, then investing in afforestation guaranteed the provision of jobs from the “embryonic to the maturity stage”.
Barima Afari II made the call when interacting with the media after the symbolic planting of tree seedlings at the off-reserve portion of ‘Morton Forest’ at Tetekrom, a farming community near Chiraa where the Sunyani District Office of the Forestry Services Division (FSD) selected for the District’s observance of this year’s Green Ghana Day (GGD), which was on the theme: “Our Forests, Our Health.”
‘The Chriaahene’ said the significance of investing in afforestation had trickled down positive effects on both present and future generations as it had wide range of associated natural and physical-material benefits for the health and general well-being of the citizenry
He, therefore, commended the government for instituting the green day, saying, it was therefore, an obligation for every Ghanaian to support that course through involvement in tree planting not only on the officially declared day of the exercise, but at any day and anytime to restore Ghana’s green environment.
He cautioned ‘galamsayers’ (illegal miners) not to either enter the ‘Morton Forest’ or step on any land in the Chiraa area to engage in their selfish and nation-wrecking activities, warning that any individual or group caught would be dealt with according to the full rigours of the law.
‘The Chriaahene’ further warned group hunters within Chiraa and its environs who went on hunting expedition by setting fire unto bushes during the dry season for game to spare the Morton Forests, saying “it is a huge investment by an individual with general benefit for the country, so everyone must help in protecting it”.
The ‘Morton Forest’ is owned by Morton Farms, a company established by a Ghanaian private investor, Nii Noi Morton and had since 2011 planted more than 300 acres of different economic tree species which had now matured and forested the hitherto degraded land area.
The tree species include ‘odum’, ‘wawa’, ‘ofram’, mahogany, ‘emire’, ‘wabre’, cedrela, teak, ‘mansonia’ and ‘hyedua’.
According to Nana Dei Boakye, the Farm Manager, the company targeted to plant an additional 370 acres of tree seedlings this year, as 150 acres out of the 370 had been planted already.
Earlier in an interview with the media, Mr. Francis Brobbey, the Sunyani District FSD Manager explained the District’s FSD Management chose the Morton Forest’s off-reserve for the ceremonial planting to observe the GGD because “what Nii Morton has achieved as an individual in the forest sector is nationalistic and highly commendable that needs to be emulated and replicated by other investors for national interest.”
GNA