Accra, July 17, GNA - The Ministry of Lands and Forestry has identified bamboo and rattan production as an alternative to timber, the high demand of which had led to the depletion of forest reserves, Professor Dominic Fobih said on Thursday.

He said the natural forest had declined both in quantity and quality over the years as a result of over exploitation of the timber resources.

Prof. Fobih said this when he opened a local bamboo and rattan products exhibition in Accra to mark the beginning of an invention and innovations in the timber industry.

Products exhibited included doors, furniture, dinning tables, panel products and handicrafts.

The Minister noted that government had adopted the Bamboo Innovative Project as a national programme to complement the current President's Special Initiative on Forest Plantation Development, which sought among other things to alleviate poverty, address environmental degradation and the wood deficit situation in the wood industry. He said a secretariat had been set up under the Ministry to co-ordinate activities under the programme and provide the enabling environment and the appropriate support mechanisms and incentives to promote the development of the industry.

"We see this exhibition as a turning point for a new investment opportunities in the forestry sector and more especially in the light of new export diversification drive of government."

Mr Amin Zacca, Managing Director of the Kumasi Logging and Lumber Company, the manufacturers of the products for the exhibition said mass production even for export could be achieved if the raw materials were available.

He urged Ghanaians to go into bamboo plantation to complement and supplement timber to ensure the sustainability and viability of the industry.