Accra, May 5, GNA - Mr Charles Wereko, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources, has bemoaned the rate at which the nation forest is being lost yearly. He said Ghana looses about 65,000 hectors yearly and that if this trend continues; the nation would loose all its forest area within the next 20 years.

Mr Wereko disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.

He said to address the situation, the Ministry in conjunction with the Forestry Commission are recruiting a total of 51,000 people from all the administrative districts of the country, to undertake tree planting exercises in targeted degraded forest reserved areas. He said about 300 people would be recruited in every district and that the Ministry was aiming at restoring about 400,000 hectors of degraded forests, within the shortest possible time.

Mr Wereko attributed the problem to human activities, such as the demand for wood for building and other constructional works and also for energy.