The government has been urged to rigidly enforce laws that protect the nation’s forest and its resources to stop the plundering.
Mr James Parker of Tropenbos International Ghana, a civil society organization, said those caught engaged in illegal logging must be ruthlessly dealt with and not be treated with kid gloves.
He made the call at a day’s workshop on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) for wood workers including artisanal saw millers.
It formed part of efforts at helping to deepen the understanding of participants of the voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) signed between the European Union and Ghana, to ensure that logs and other wood products exported to the EU market come from legal sources.
Mr Parker said the nation should not narrow down the VPA compliance to only wood exports but must insist that what was on the domestic market satisfied the legal requirement.
He spoke of the need to adequately support the Forestry Commission (FC) to efficiently perform its task and help stop activities of illegal operators.
Mr Alfred Fosu Ayum of Forest Products Limited in a presentation said there would be wood tracking system by the FC and that FLEGT licenses would be issued to cover sale of timber products.
Source: GhanaWeb
