The Chief Executive (CE) of the Forestry Commission (FC), Mr. A. S. K Boachie-Dapaah, has announced that the commission has decided to disburse sixty percent of the royalties from off-forest reserves to the traditional authorities and others.

The remaining of the forty per cent, according to Mr. Dapaah, would go to the FC.

This new policy is the reverse of the old system, where the government takes the greatest part of the royalties.

The CE said this, at the launching of research site of the Tropenbos International Ghana programme (TBI) at Asumora in the Asunafo District of the Brong Ahafo Region (BAR).

Mr. Dapaah emphasised that the nation's forest reserve does not belong to government and as such the government is only managing the forest to ensure sustainable forest reserves

The CE has therefore called on chiefs and their people to assist in the management of the nation's forest, which is fast turning into savannah areas.

He disclosed that about 80% of the country's forest are off-forest reserves and out of this 50% have been destroyed through farming, bushfires and other anti-forest activities.

On on-reserves, Mr. Dapaah lamented that the illegal chainsaw operators have sent the forest into desertification.

So rectify this situation, the CE called on all Ghanaians to practise the culture of afforestation in the areas.

He said, "Most of the chainsaw operators possess dangerous weapons which is a threat to the Forest Commission officers, who try to arrest them."

The Deputy Minister for Lands and Forestry, Mr. Thomas Broni, has disclosed that the government is much concerned about the operations of illegal timber and chain saw operations, equity in benefit sharing and poverty reduction in the country.

On illegal timber and chainsaw operations, Mr. Broni said the annual allowable cut of 1 million cubic metres of wood, the total harvest in 1999, was about 4.3 million cubic metres.

Out of forty to fifty per cent of this, according to Mr. Broni, was by chainsaw operators.

This, the minister said, is attack on the country's forest, but however, said it provides employment for about fifty thousand people in this illegal operation.

He stressed that chain saw operations under the current government cannot be sustained.

The Deputy Minister revealed that the government has decided to accommodate the chain saw operators under the law to engage them in alternative livelihoods, hence the forest plantation thinning and coppice management, recovery of timber off-cuts in the forest, forest boundary demarcation and clearing land and other related activities in the on-going national forest plantation development programme and assisting timber companies in timber harvesting operation in more difficult areas Mr. Broni, has disclosed that the timber resource management act, has been amended to include private developers to harvest their planted trees for commercial purposes without the Timber Utilisation Contract (TUC).

Mr. H. C. Vellema, representing the TBI Ghana programme, stated that the mission of the TBI Ghana is to provide distinctive scientific inputs into sustainable management of the country's high forest resources

To achieve this mission, TBI would conduct research and training, design and test of methods, promoting updates and application, and collaborative and co-operation between stakeholders TBI is an international NGO based in Netherlands and has been operating in a number of tropical countries including Asia and Africa, since 1989.

TBI was registered in Ghana in September, 2001.