<<Print>>Some holiday revelers sustained various degrees of injury when they fell off from the Bunso Arboretum Canopy Walkway in the East Akyem Municipality of the East Region.
The Republic Day holiday revelers numbering about ten, are currently receiving treatment at the Tafo Government Hospital and the Hawa Memorial Hospital, after they were rescued by a team from the Ghana National Ambulance Service.
The canopy walkway was constructed only two years ago by a private developer under an arrangement with government that sought to bring more tourists to the area.
The Bunso Arboretum Eco-tourism forest reserve, is managed by the Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute, PGRRI, of the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR.
The 320 metre long walkway, has five bridges and six platforms. According to Neequaye, it was the second bridge that fell off resulting into the injuries to the users.
She says it is unclear what may have caused the accident.
But having visited the site and used the canopy walkway early this year, Neequaye says it could be as a result of the huge number of persons who may have used the walkway at a time without proper crowd control.
"When I visited there early this year, we were made to walk in threes in order to manage the load. But I suspect that being a holiday, the users may have outnumbered the strength of the walkway. I also have unconfirmed reports that some of the people were jumping on it without care".
It is unclear what kind of expertise may have gone into the construction of the walkway but Neequaye says assistance was sort from those who constructed the canopy walkway at the Kakum National Park in the Central Region.
The Bunso Arboretum eco-tourism center, is a protected forest reserve, spanning 16.5 hectares.
Half of the area is semi-deciduous forest while the other half is made up of indigenous trees, along with fruits, nuts and timber tree species which have been introduced to Ghana by the Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Bunso.
The Arboretum is home to over 110 species of birds, some of which are very rare. The protected Arboretum offers them a peaceful place to call home.
The herb garden which is located in the Arboretum contains 100 different species of herbs with a wide range of uses, from food to medicinal to aromatic.
Visitors stroll through the many kilometres of nature trails in the arboretum. Guests can identify the local trees and plants along the way and learn about all the local uses for diverse tree and plant life in the arboretum.