The Forestry Commission, in conjunction with the Jungle Warfare School at Akyem Achiase, has given military training to 80 youth forest champions to protect the reserves.

It is part of measures to contain illegal mining (galamsey) and illegal logging in the country’s forest reserves.

The trainees, who were recruited from four galamsey endemic regions of Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Western North, would be stationed permanently in 10 forest protection camps set up by the Forestry Commission to protect the forest reserves across 24 hours.

Addressing the closing ceremony for the recruits at Akyem Achiase in the Eastern Region last Friday, the Director of Operations of the Forest Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission, Valerie Fumey-Nassah, said the pilot programme would be extended to the other mining regions to protect the forest reserves from degradation.

She commended the participants for their comportment during the training programme and urged them to sustain the spirit at their workplaces to achieve the objectives of the training.

Role models

Ms Fumey-Nassah admonished the recruits to be role models by working assiduously to ward off illegal miners and illegal loggers from the forest reserves.

She expressed gratitude to the management of the Jungle Warfare School for the opportunity given to the Commission and appealed to them to periodically visit the recruits at their camps to monitor their activities.

The Human Resource Manager of the FSD, Mitchell Attipoe, said the training programme was the beginning of such activities to be undertaken for more staff at the military barracks to inject discipline in them.

The Commandant of the Jungle Warfare School, Lt Col Sparatus Baninyeni, advised the recruits to strive to put what they had received at the two-week training into practice in order to achieve the desired results.

He urged them to direct their attention to the nation wreckers in the forest reserves.