Mr Zakaria Iddi, National Coordinator of Shea Network Ghana, a non-governmental organization, has expressed worry about the wanton destruction of the shea tree for charcoal and other purposes and said this was a recipe for disaster in the north if the situation was not halted.

He said majority of the people of the north depended so much on the shea tree for survival and that the poverty situation would worsen if these acts of destroying economic trees were not stopped.

Mr Iddi said there was the need to amend the Forestry Commission Act, (Act 571) of 1999 because it does not protect non-timber species including the shea tree. This was contained in press statement issued in Tamale on Friday in commemoration of this year’s World Environment Day which fell on Thursday, June 5. he statement said many rural households in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and parts of the Volta and the Brong Ahafo regions depended largely on the shea tree and it was unthinkable why such a special economic tree could be destroyed for charcoal, firewood, plantation crops, and construction as well as for the development of farm lands.

It said the destruction must be immediately curtailed not only for sustainable livelihoods but also to prevent the effects of climate change since the ecology was gradually becoming too fragile.