Takoradi, Aug 13, – Ghana’s forest estate, excluding game reserves, has dwindled from 8.1 million hectares about a century ago to only 2.1 million hectares as at present. Mr Alex Owusu Agyemang, Director of Human Resource Development of the ministry of Lands and Forestry, made this known when he opened a four-day workshop for selected groups of small-scale furniture producers drawn from the Central, Western and Ashanti regions on Tuesday. Mr Agyemang, who spoke on behalf of the minister of Lands and Forestry, Mr Cletus Avokah, said out of 420 different tree species growing to exploitable size in the forest of Ghana, only about 32 species comprising the main traditional ones are being seriously exploited. He said the rapid rate of depletion may be attributed to inefficient exploitation of the country’s forest resources. To address the problem of inefficient exploitation of species in the forest of Ghana, he said a project on industrial utilization and improved marketing of products from lesser used species was initiated by the government with support from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).
