The Akyem Oda District Forestry Monitoring team on Wednesday arrested three people for felling five trees at the Esuboni Forest Reserve.

The suspects are Kofi Baah, a chainsaw operator, Kwabena Ninson, a carrier, and Isaac Benuah, a sponsor of the operation.

Ms Dorothy Dampson, Akyem Oda District Forestry Manager told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the monitoring team led by Mr. Dominic Oteng on their normal patrol spotted the three persons in the reserve at about 1330 hours.

She said the team later discovered that the suspects had felled three “Danta” and two “Emire” trees and were about to convey them from the reserve and arrested them.

According to Ms Dampson, the suspects had since been handed over to the Akyem Oda District Police for further investigations and prosecution.

She appealed to the Courts to give stiffer punishment to illegal chainsaw operators to serve as a deterrent to others.

Ms Dampson expressed worry about the rate at which the forests were being depleted and called for concerted efforts from chiefs, opinion leaders, stakeholders and forest fringe communities to help save the situation.

Meanwhile, the chainsaw used in the operation has been impounded.**