Accra, March 5, GNA - Over 35,000 hectares of degraded forest lands have so far been reclaimed under the National Forest Plantation programme which began nearly three years ago. Speaking to journalists on Friday in Accra, Mr Peter Ossei-Wusu, of the Resource Management Support Centre of the Forestry Commission in Kumasi said 17,460 and 17,691 hectares of the degraded land was planted in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

The plantation programme was carried out under the Modified Taungya System where farmers were allowed to interplant food crops with the tree seedlings at the initial stage of the establishment. Mr Ossei-Wusu said the programme was geared towards encouraging the development of a sustainable forest resource base that would satisfy future demands for industrial timber and to enhance environmental quality.

"It would also resolve the forest cover of degraded reserves to create employment opportunities at the rural community level and generate income for the plantation owners, timber processors and the national economy as well as address the wood deficit situation of the country," he said.

Mr Ossei-Wusu noted that timber species selected for the programme included teak, cedrella, cassia, eucalyptus under the exotic brand and wawa, oprono afram, emire, mahogany and ceiba were the indigenous species.

He said the Chirano Gold Limited, Bogoso, Goldfields Ghana Limited and the Abosso Goldfields supplied the 27,500 seedlings to the Commission for the planting exercise, which was carried out in all the 10 regions of the country.

"Food production increase in the operations areas with the Taungya farmers alone producing over 128,000 tonnes of variety of food stuffs mainly maize, cocoyam and plantain.

"Before the start of the exercise, a greater proportion of foodstuffs had been evacuated from many Taungya farms, additional 359 tonnes were also evacuated during the special exercise" Mr Ossei-Wusu said.

On job creation, he said over 80,884 jobs were created in 2003 and 83,068 in 2002 adding that 167 companies benefited from the allocation made to private entrepreneurs to undertake the reforestation in degraded reserves.