Bechem Forest District To Plant 600 Hectares Of Trees

The Bechem forest district has targeted to plant over 600 hectares of various species including mahogany, ticks, mansonia among others as part of frantic efforts to speed up afforestation program which is high on the agenda of the commission and for that matter government.
This is a sharp increase over the projected 350 hectares last year of which about 490 was achieved. The forest district has been making good use of the Youth in afforestation program and some other strategic plans to achieve this year. Currently, there are about 420 youths on the program in the district who are work vigorously to achieve the target.    This was disclosed to the media in an interview with the Bechem Forest manager Mr. Obeng Boamah Raymond at Bechem in the Tano  South municipality of the newly created Ahafo Region.                Despite these achievements, there are some recalcitrant people whose activities have been degrading the forest by way of illegal farming in the reserves, illegal chain saw operations as well as transporting logs without proper documentation.    According to Mr. Boamah, this has fingers up management to wage a relentless war against such people leading to the apprehension and prosecution of some of them at a district court in Sunyani. He said some of them had their machine and vehicles confiscated in recent time in order to serve as a deterrent to prospective ones.  He pleaded with the various community folks to keep eagle eye on such bad nuts and guard against any form of activity which has the tendency of endangering the forests as he expressed a profound gratitude to the Chief Executive of the forestry commission Mr kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, Director of operations and the Regional Manager for their support for successes chalked so far.