The Forestry Commission (FC) in the western corridor of the Upper East Region has charged Lesken Enterprise Limited an amount of GH₵44,161.70 for destroying economic trees at Nakong in the Kassena-Nankana West District.
Lesken Enterprise is the biggest wholesale distributor of alcoholic and none-alcoholic beverages in the Upper East Region.
The Company is said to violate the rules of engagement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Wildlife Division of the FC and the Nakong Traditional Council when it cleared some portions of the Nakong forest area without permission from all three institutions.
The western corridor covers the Kassena-Nankana and Builsa North Municipalities, the Builsa South and Kassena-Nankana West Districts.
A letter from the FC, date 4th July 2022 and signed by Mr Emmanuel Owusu and addressed to Managing Director Lesken Enterprise Bolgatanga cited by mywordfmonline.com indicated that the Lesken Enterprise Limited cleared about 208 species of economic trees including rosewood, papao, shea and kenya trees on about 5.5 hectares of land.
The letter said the action of Lesken Enterprise violated the rules and regulations of the Forestry Protection Amendment Act 2002 Act 624 section 1 subsection(c)and (h).
Mr Emmanuel Owusu, the District Manager of the FC in charge of the corridor, in an interview on the ‘Word Community Watch Show,’ denied allegation that his office granted Lesken Enterprise Limited the permission to clear the forest for the production of sorghum.
He said the fine was arrived at, after an assessment carried out to establish the destruction of the economic trees.
When Word News contacted Mr Cletus Akana, the Liaison Officer of the farm project , he confirmed that the Company had received a letter from the FC, but stated that the Company had not destroyed economic trees as indicated in the letter.
“Yes, that is true, we have a copy of the letter. The only thing is that there are some petty trees that we fell that we need to finance to replant.”
“We are in talks with them (FC) to justify the assessment the did to arrive at that figure. You don’t just do an assessment, and we just go and pay money that you don’t know the method they used to assess. So we want them to justify what the used to arrive at that figure so that we can pay,” he said.
According to Mr Akana, the trees indicated in the letter were not economic trees, insisting that the Company had not destroyed any shea or economic trees.
Mr Julius Awaregya, the Director of the Organisation for Indigenous Initiatives and Sustainability, Ghana, noted that the Company should not have destroyed the economic trees to produce sorghum.
He suggested that the Management of the Company should have rather engaged farmer groups in the area and with technical support from Agricultural Officers, it could have achieved its objective rather than destroy the trees.
Source:mywordfmonline.com/ Gaspard Ayuureneeya.