Mr Clement Kojo Akapame, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has noted that Ghana needs a single forest law to regulate the management of the country’s forest resources.
He said currently there are 27 Acts of Parliament and Legislative Instruments with their amendments dating as far back as 1927.
Mr Akapame stated this at seminar organized by the Editors Forum, Ghana in collaboration with Civic Response on the theme: “Saving Ghana’s Forest: Time for a unified law”.
He said the forest and wild life policy of 2012 called for strengthening of the legal framework to give permanency to gazetted forest reserves and protected areas in order to conserve representative samples of major ecosystem and species in the country.
Mr Obed Owusu Addai, a Programme Officer, said Ghana was losing forest revenue due to illegal operations in the sector; adding that 1.6 million of revenue is lost annually.
He said additional 200 million dollars of revenue were also lost through illegal chain saw operations, adding that some companies were in default of non-payment of stampage fees including non-payment of timber rights fees.
Mrs Adjoa Yeboah Afari, former Editor of the Ghanaian Times, said our survival depended on the forest and we need to manage it properly.
She said the Editors Forum, Ghana, (EFG) served as a peer review mechanism working behind the scenes on topical issues.
Dr Doris Yaa Dartey, Vice Chairperson of EFG, called on the media to attach great importance to forest issues and constantly report on them to create the awareness on the need to have laws that will regulate our forest resources well.
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