The Chief of Atronie in the Bono Region, Otumfour Obrempong Odiawisie Nana Amponsem Darko Il, and his delegation of chiefs and queen mothers, paid a courtesy call on the Chief Executive, Mr. John Allotey, and Management of the Forestry Commission.
The purpose of the visit was to share their concerns, and solicit for the Chief Executive ‘s support in matters related to the protection of forest reserves in the Atronie area.
In his address, the Atroniehene commended Mr. Allotey, his Management and staff of the Forestry Commission for the numerous programs instituted to preserve the nation’s forest reserves.
Atronie is home to the Amama Shelterbelt and Asukese Forest Reserves, which the Chief of Atronie describes as having the potentials to contribute significantly to the social-economic development of the people.
However, the Paramount Chief explained that the people of Atronie are yet to reap the full benefits they rightfully deserve for the protection of the two forest reserves. He complained that Atronie cannot boast of a single sawmill that can employ some of their youth to give them a source of income. Other issues the Chief raised were payments of Social Responsibility Agreement (SRA), and the required percentage of stumpage fees.
He also beseeched the Commission to beef up the staff strength in his community to better protect the forests. He mentioned that he sometimes engages some of the youth in his community to patrol along the boundary lines when they suspect encroachers are in the area.
The Chief Executive welcomed the Chief of Atronie and his delegation to the Commission, and applauded the Region for distributing the highest number of seedlings for Green Ghana Day
According to Mr. Allotey, the Bono Region and Sunyani
district distributed over 700,000 seedlings. He added that it was not only FC staff who distributed seedlings on the day, but it was done in collaboration with the people in the communities.
He also appreciated them for the work they do to protect the forests and assured them that he will visit to inspect how the seedlings are faring.
In responding to issues on royalties, the CE said the people who live closer to the forests and protect them are also entitled to royalties and stumpages. He said that he has started doing studies on royalties payments because there have been many complaints on his desk. He mentioned that the concern now is if royalties are shared, who should receive it? “We will discuss how to manage the royalties since some forest reserves are surrounded by different paramountcies and we need to have discussions on who and how it’s shared”, he added.
Mr. Allotey said FC will engage the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL) to sort out royalty issues.
Addressing the issue of the establishment of sawmills and youth employment, Mr. Allotey spoke about other benefits of the forest that are non-timber forest products, such as bee-keeping and the Modified Taungya System (MTS), where some individuals and communities are given degraded forest compartments to plant food and trees for their consumption. With this initiative, he said FC will provide the seedlings and technical advice, and when trees are harvested the community gets 40% of the total amount paid by the contractor. “If they are interested FC will send people to train them on bee-keeping and others”,he added.
He encouraged anyone who wants to do timber business or operate a sawmill, to register with the Forestry Commission as the Commission will work with them to set it up. “We are open to welcome and assist anyone who wants to go into timber business. What we don’t want is people going by themselves to do illegal logging”, he added.
He also advised them to ensure they take the minimum of 5% SRA they sign with timber companies before asking for other favors, and reiterated FC’s support in ensuring that they will be paid the 5%.
The Chief presented two bottles of schnapps, a bottle of whiskey, a citation and a white sheep to the Chief Executive and his team to appreciate his good works.
