Trees in the nation’s Forest Reserves and other stool lands are vested in the state and are being managed by the Forestry Service Commission throughout the country.

Wood workers and other wood users are therefore advised to avoid the indiscriminate felling of trees and lumber, but to contact the various district forestry officers for permit, concessional documents and the needed advice, to avoid environmental degradation.

The Afram Plains District Manager of the Forestry Services Commission, Rev Jonathan Obour Wiredu, gave the advice when he addressed timber contractors, chiefs, chainsaw operators, charcoal burners, carpenters and the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Media Auditing and Tracking of Development project team at Donkorkrom.

He pointed out that chiefs and other land owners have no legal rights to sell trees and lumber to wood users to be processed into other finished products without the approval from the Forestry Commission.

The District Forestry Manager gave the assurance that the Forestry Office was ready to assist individuals and groups to cultivate acacia and other fast growing trees into woodlots for the production of charcoal, and to also assist them to cultivate teak and other timber species for sale later to timber contractors to enhance their financial resources.

He warned that, anybody arrested for felling trees indiscriminately without permit and other documents would be prosecuted.

Mr Wiredu noted that, Afram Plains was one of the major food production areas in the country, and needed to be protected from being turned into a desert with the indiscriminate felling of trees.

He advised farmers to plant trees alongside their food crops.