Takoradi, Aug. 25, GNA - The supply of lumber to the local markets for sale to the general public dropped by 1,000 cubic metres from 8,500 cubic metres between January and June 2002 to 7,500 cubic metres for the same period in 2003.

Mr Joseph P. Peprah, Executive Director of the Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD), said this in an address read on his behalf at an emergency meeting of saw millers, lumber sellers, carpenters, furniture manufactures and woodworkers at Takoradi at the weekend. He said to arrest the situation, the Sector Minister, Professor Dominic Fobih had directed all saw millers to create market outlets at their respective sawmills for the sole purpose of selling lumber to local communities.

He said the TIDD would also carry out inspection at the sawmills to ensure that adequate stocks of lumber were made available, adding that a monitoring team from the Ministry would check the stock at the local markets regularly.

"Although the country today can boast of some natural tropical high forest cover, the fact still remains that the extent of the country's forest cover has reduced considerably from close to about eight million hectares in the early 1900 to only about 1.6 million hectares," Mr Peprah said.

He said the persistent depletion of the forest cover had resulted from an array of factors including chainsaw lumbering, adding that it was to check the rampant depletion of the forest that chainsaw lumbering was banned in 1998.

Mr Peprah said to make up for the quantity of lumber that used to be produced through chainsaw lumbering, the Ministry of lands and forestry in consultation with the Forestry Commission directed that saw millers should supply 20 per cent of their lumber production onto the domestic market.