Current estimates of Ghana’s Forest Cover stands at less than 1 million hectares, the Forestry Commission has said.
The country’s forests are said to be depleting at an alarming rate and affecting forest dependant communities and the nation at large. “At the beginning of the twentieth century, Ghana had an estimated forest cover of 8.2 million hectares. By independence, the forest cover had shrunk to about four million hectares,” the commission said.
It is estimated that since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957 the annual deforestation rate has been averaging 65,000 hectares per year.
Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Clement Eledi once attributed the problem to the failure of Ghana’s Forestry and Wildlife policies and strategies to ensure that forest and wildlife resources were managed on economically viable, socially beneficial and environmentally sound principles.
Mining alone is said to deplete two million acres of forested land each year.
Currently very little closed forest is said to remain outside the forest reserve network with much of it in small-scattered patches in swamps and sacred groves. Environmentalists say that granting the miners permits to enable them operate in the reserves will result in the decimation of the remaining forest tucked away in the reserve.
Other reasons for the fast pace of the deforestation in the country according to the commission are “… a phenomenal increase in population leading to pressure on forests and forested lands, expansion of agriculture, wild fires and uncontrolled logging as well as the production of wood fuel”. The FAO country report on Ghana confirms that two thirds of the population and most of Ghana’s economic activities are concentrated in its forested areas
Meanwhile it is said that forests play an important role in the nation’s socio-economic development. Timber exports alone is said to have fetched the country an estimated $214 million in revenue.
As Ghana celebrates fifty years of nationhood, the Forestry Commission wants Ghanaians to spend some time to reflect on the contribution of forestry to the country’s socio-economic development and the need to ensure its sustainability.
The commission is therefore launching an annual memorial lecture on the 5th of December in honour of Johnny Francois, the first Ghanaian Chief Conservator of Forests who pioneered forestry practice in Ghana.
The maiden edition of the Johnny Francois Memorial Lectures is on the theme “Fifty years of Forestry in Ghana – achievements, challenges and the way forward”; and former Director of the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources of KNUST Mr. J.G.K Owusu will be speaking on the theme.
A second presentation on the day will be by Mr. Yaw Danso, a Forestry Consultant and Social Development Analyst on the topic “Forest Governance – challenges and way forward”.
The minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines is slated to inaugurate the lectures.

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