The firearms will enable the guards to protect themselves and also repel the frequent attacks on them by some unscrupulous people, including illegal chainsaw operators and poachers.

The Chief Executive Officer  of the FC, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, who announced this in Accra last Friday, said: “By February 2020, the firearms will be in to properly arm our staff when they go out.”

“To combat the increasing spate of illegal logging, mining, farming and other such activities in our forest reserves and wildlife protected areas, different approaches are being pursued,” he added.

Mr Owusu-Afriyie, who was speaking at the end-of-year briefing and awards ceremony at the headquarters of the FC, said “the commission sought the approval of the Public Procurement Authority to procure 1,000 arms and ammunition for forest and wildlife guards for the effective patrol of our forest and wildlife estates”.

He cited instances when forest rangers of the FC on duty had been shot at, thereby putting their lives in danger.

Tree planting

He also said an estimated 24 million assorted species of seedlings had been supplied and planted, and mentioned some of the tree species as Ofram, Emire, Wawa, Kokrodua, Teak, Cedrela, Gmelina, Cassia, Eucalyptus and Mahogany.

He said an additional 1.4 million tree seedlings were nursed by personnel of the Youth in Afforestation Project (YAP).

Mr Owusu-Afriyie also said 83,000 people were engaged for this year’s forest plantation programme as part of the FC’s job creation initiative.

“These include 46,000 under the YAP, 15,000 under the modified Taungya system and an estimated 2,000 in seedling production. The private sector also employed an estimated 20,000 people nationwide,” he added.

Financing

On the financial performance of the commission as of the end of September 2019, he said GH?146 million was realised from government subvention, internally generated funds and donor funding.

“Out of this, GH?63 million was used to pay salaries, as against a budgeted amount of GH?68 million. The commission generated GH?86 million, instead of the budgeted amount of GH?53 million, and we received GH?10 million from our donor partners,” he added.

According to him, GH?94 million was spent on goods and services, with GH?6.4 million being expended on assets.

He said GH?9.85 million was used as education grant for staff, GH?4.49 million was paid to staff who exited the FC as part of a staff terminal benefit policy, GH?1.1 million was paid to retiring staff, while about GH?602,000 was paid as medical refund.

“The commission also disbursed GH?2.7 million as special loan and GH?200,000 as housing loan to staff,” Mr Owusu-Afriyie added.

The event was used to honour staff of the FC from across the country for their hard work and commitment during the year.