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Two Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the Upper East Region have appealed to the government to help halt the harvesting of rosewood in the Northern Savannah Zone.

The CSOs, the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) and the Organization for Indigenous Initiatives and Sustainability- Ghana (ORGIIS), urged the government to revoke all permits granted to over 20 companies to harvest and process rosewood trees in northern Ghana and the Brong Ahafo Region.

The two CSOs said they have seen a copy of a document signed by the Chief Executive of Forestry Commission granting approval to over 20 companies to engage in logging rosewood in northern Ghana and the Brong Ahafo Region.

A press release issued and jointly signed by Mr Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, the Executive Director of NORPRA, and Mr Julius Awaregye, the Executive Director of ORGIIS-Ghana, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, said that in an effort to ascertain the facts on the operations of the companies, NORPRA made a field trip to a number of communities in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region and saw rosewood being cut down in commercial quantities.

“It is recalled that environmentally conscious Ghanaians, climate change advocates and people of northern Ghana strongly supported the NPP in opposition when the party raised the alarm bell through a press conference on the felling of these rosewood tress in northern Ghana. The government was again highly applauded when it, in the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, stated that it had placed high premium on combating climate change through prioritization of climate change programmes and projects”.

It could not, therefore, be that the government would allow the Forestry Commission to authorize the felling of rosewood trees, in the parts of the country that has livelihoods seriously threatened by harsh weather conditions, the statement said.

It said it was most worrying that government was encouraging environmentally unfriendly actions at a time Ghana’s development partners and the international community were sympathizing with the Ghanaian people on the increasing impact of climate change on livelihoods.

It said it is also important to note that the impact of climate change would be intensified in northern Ghana with temperature increasing by 2O degrees Celsius by the year 2030 as shown by a scientific research.

“This is certainly very alarming and we expect government to rededicate itself to the implementation of a very comprehensive national policy on climate change to minimize its effect”, it said.