The Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry has said it will hold consultations with actors in the country’s forest sector to address the rosewood challenge confronting the savannah regions of the country.
Mr Francis Manu-Adabor, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select-Committee on Lands and Forestry, who announced this at Mole, said a statement on the rosewood situation came up on the floor of Parliament, where it was referred to the Committee to study.
Mr Manu-Adabor, who is also Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South East Constituency, was speaking to the press at Mole after leading members of the Committee to tour institutions under the Committee in the Northern Region to acquaint themselves with their challenges and how best to resolve them.
Institutions visited included the Northern Regional Office of the Forestry Commission, Northern Regional Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands and the Mole National Park.
Records indicate that within a period of nine years (2004 to 20-13), 110,000 cubic metres of rosewood were felled in the country, a level described as unsustainable as the tree takes a minimum of 40 years to regenerate.
Whiles there is a ban on harvesting of rosewood in the country, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources continues to license companies to transport lumbered rosewood from the savannah regions where the companies later export the wood.
Mr Manu-Adabor said the Forestry Commission in the Northern Region has briefed members of the Committee on the rosewood situation in the region adding the Committee would also meet with the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and the Forestry Commission in Accra to see how best to reduce the menace
He described the situation as complex saying the chiefs, communities and companies were involved in felling the trees adding the Committee would also visit the Upper East and Upper West Regions to apprise itself about the situation.
He spoke about the conditions of work of the Forestry Commission and the Administrator of Stool Lands in the region assuring that the Committee would make a case for the offices to be equipped to improve their operations.