Kwesi Pratt Jr, the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, has urged government to employ a balanced policy to protect the Achimota forest which happens to be the only carbon sink in the Greater Accra Region.

Speaking to the dangers it poses to the lives of inhabitants of Accra on Pan African TV on March 22, 2025, he lamented the ongoing devastation of the Achimota forest under the guise that owners of the land occasionally approach government for certain arrangements in the interest of their family.

“Every now and then they’ll come and tell us that some family owns it and that the family is demanding it and so they are going into some agreement with the family. Let that family go to hell!

“Because it’s our lives we are talking about. The lives of 4 million people are at stake. The lives of 4 million people cannot be sacrificed for the so-called interest of the family of that land which has become the Achimota forest,” he said.

He emphasized that successive governments since the 1970s have not shown any commitment in protecting the forest reserve.

“The whole of Accra has only one carbon sink, which is the Achimota Forest. From the 1970s when I became conscious of the Achimota forest, there hasn’t been any government and I mean any government that has seen the Achimota Forest for what it is. I mean as a carbon sink; something which keeps us alive.

“Now, if you’re conscious of the consequences of environmental degradation and so on, you will not be doing what government after government have been doing to the Achimota Forest”, he lamented.

He indicated that the Achimota forest, similar to other natural resources can only be protected if the state does not see it as a resource to be exploited for private profit.

“We must get this clear. It is only possible to protect the Achimota forest if we see it as a property that is necessary for the survival of over 4 million people. If you continue to see it as something that can be exploited for private profit you get it wrong.

“So, our minerals, our rivers and our forests and so on should not be exploited simply for private profits. It should be exploited reasonably in a balanced policy which recognizes that these are essential for our live for the quality of lives for over 32 million people,” he added.

VPO/EK

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