Ghana’s fight against the depletion of its wildlife resources will not succeed unless communities get involved directly and are authorised to manage the resources themselves.
The Head of the team advocating the review of a Wildlife Bill, Mr Dankama Quarm, said at a forum in Accra last Tuesday that allowing communities to manage forests was the best way to protect the country’s wildlife resources, The forum was organised by the Achichire-Sureso-Pebaseman Community Resources Management Area (CREMA) and the Business Sector Challenge Advocacy (BUSAC) Fund.
Among the issues discussed at the forum was the current Wildlife Bill which is before Parliament. Background
Ghana has lost more than seven million hectares of its forest cover in the last 100 years. The country’s forest cover, which stood at 8.6 million hectares by the turn of the 19th century, now stands at 1.8 million hectares.
This is largely due to the activities of illegal miners and illegal timber operators. Wildlife Bill
Mr Quarm said over the past months, CREMA had held many stakeholder forums to further deepen and strengthen the proposal with Parliament for a review of the Wildlife Bill.
The idea, he said, was to expand the devolution of the management authority and responsibility over natural resources to CREMA.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry, Alhaji Amadu Seidu, gave an assurance that the committee would do everything within its power to ensure the passage of the Wildlife Bill.
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