Winneba, (C/R), Dec. 30, GNA - Efforts to effectively protect and preserve forest reserves within the "Southern Dry Forest Management Zone" would be a mirage, if stringent measures were not taken to curb group hunting activities in areas where these reserves are located. The reserves are: "Ahirasu Number One and Two, Akrabong, Obotomfo, and Abasomba which are within the Southern Dry Zone of Winneba Forest District, have been earmarked as Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs).

In the past ten years, hunters from Accra, Tema, and Kasoa had virtually turned these vital areas as their annual hunting grounds where they embark on weekly intensive group hunting activities between January and April every year for all sorts of animals.

The most destructive and disturbing aspect of various group hunters who indulge in these unpatriotic act was that in the course of their illicit ventures they set wild bushfires in anticipation to trap more animals and eventually destroy the forest reserves the state is protecting together with their biodiversity potentialities, thus drawing back the clock of development in that sector.

Nana Asare Andoh II, Chief of Gomoa-Adzentem, near Gomoa-Potsin in the Central Region, gave the warning at a stakeholders meeting at Winneba.

He regretted that while, Ghana was using funds from the World Bank and donor organizations to implement programmes to develop and sustain her forest resources certain unpatriotic elements in the society were bent on reversing the programme through indiscriminate burning of the bush.

Nana Asare Andoh appealed to the Government and Parliament to do something concrete about the issue as early as possible, to support the conservation moves government was making towards replenishing the country's depleted forest reserves.

The Chief said, apart from destroying the forests, the hunters also steal farm produce and later set fire to the farms they had illegally harvested.

He said, majority of hunters who indulged in such diabolical activities are soldiers, police personnel and some civilians living in Tema, Accra and Kasoa, who invade these selected forest zones with all manners of sophisticated weapons during group hunting expeditions. Nana Asare Andoh said peasant farmers living around these forest belt have started developing what he described as "Group Hunting Epidemic" as the main annual dry season was fast approaching. Commenting on Nana Asare Andoh's call, Oheneba Ampnsah Agyemang, Director, Resource Management Support Centre (RMSC) of Forestry Commission (FC), and Mr. S. Osei-Manu, Winneba District Forestry Manager expressed the hope that Government and Parliament would take a serious view of the problem and come out soon with measures to curb the practice, especially in areas where biodiversity conservation programmes were being implemented.