By Benjamin Akoto
Fiapre (B/R), Sept. 04, GNA – Three chainsaw operators have appeared before the Fiapre Circuit Court in the Sunyani West Municipality for illegally harvesting 45 pieces of Cidrella trees valued GHC146, 250 in the Amama Forest Reserve in the Bono Region.
The accused persons were Prince Owusu, 38 years, residing at Abesim, Ransford Solomon, 36 years, also resident of Benu Nkwanta and Johnson Berko, 20 years, also residing at Kyiridua, all in the Sunyani Municipality.
When the case was heard, they all pleaded not guilty to the charge of entering a forest reserve and harvesting timber without Timber Utilization Contract contrary to section 23(1) of the Timber Resource Management Act 2002 (Act 617) as amended.
The court presided by Akua Adoma Addae adjourned till September 27, 2024, for a case management conference to commence.
However, another suspect, only known as Ebenezer, is currently on the run.
Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Eric Agyenim Boateng told the court that the complainant, Eugene Kwabena Opoku is the Sunyani Forest Range Manager.
On August 29, 2024, around 0900 hours, the complainant and his team conducted patrols at the Amama Forest Reserve, near Atronie in the Sunyani Municipality and sighted the accused persons in the reserve.
C/Insp. Boateng said the complainant and his team heard a sound of a chainsaw machine in the reserve, followed up with the noise and discovered that the accused persons had allegedly felled 45 Cidrella trees, converting them into lumber.
Prosecution said the team arrested the accused persons and confiscated a chainsaw machine in their possession and handed them and the machine to the police and added that during police interrogation the accused persons admitted entering the reserve and harvested the trees.
Mr Francis Brobbey, the District Manager of the Sunyani Forest District later told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview after the hearing that illegal logging and other human activities were fast depleting the reserve forest.
He said if the situation was not brought under control, then the objectives of the government Green Ghana Initiative could not be achieved and called for collective efforts to preserve the nation’s forest reserves.
Mr Brobbey said the Amama reserve forest required protection because most of the trees in the forest had matured, worrying that some unscrupulous people around the forest fringe communities were entering and exploiting the reserves for their personal gains.
He therefore urged all stakeholders to collaborate with the Forestry Commission to protect, as the forest district intensified surveillance and monitoring to clamp down the illegal chainsaw operators.
GNA