The operation comes on the heels of the launching of the National Forest Plantation Programme at Abofour in the Ashanti Region recently by President J. E. A. Mills, during which he tasked the Forestry Commission to make all efforts to protect gazetted forest reserves from encroachment.
In pursuit of the assigned task, the Sector Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, leading a team of military men and officials of the Forestry Commission, has destroyed large cocoa plantations established by some individual farmers in the degraded portion of the forest reserve, the Assistant Regional Forestry Manager, Mr. James Ware, disclosed, after he had paid a visit to the area to assess the situation, and to meet the affected and agitated farmers in the area.
Mr. Ware stressed that it was illegal for any individual to use forest reserves for cultivation, and that any farm which falls within this category, would be destroyed, stressing, "no illegal farm would be spared."
The Forestry Manager expressed concern at the rate at which our forests were being destroyed, and called for prudent and immediate action to control it. He assured that the exercise would be sustained until all illegal farms in the forest were destroyed.
He said after cutting down illegal cocoa trees, the Forestry Commission would ensure law and order, as well as prevent lawlessness in the management of our forests, by placing permanent gangs in the reserve to replant the forest with economic trees.
According to him, the exercise would cover all the ten regions in the country, to preserve our forests. The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. David Addai Amankwah, advised the chiefs and people of the area to calm down, and avoid politicising the issue. He suggested that the Ministry of Lands involve the Assembly in facilitating the smooth operation of the exercise.
Meanwhile, the affected farmers have pleaded with the government to come to their aid, as they are being deprived of their very livelihood. In another development, Kuapa Kokoo Limited, a farmers-owned Licensed Buying Company (LBC) in Ghana, with its headquarters in Kumasi, has paid a total of GH¢85,000 as bonuses to farmers for 2009.
Ms. Erica Adutwumwaa Kyere, Communications Manager, who made this disclosure, said the company was formed in 1993, after the government liberalised the cocoa sector, with the help of TWIN, a British non-governmental organisation (NGO), and Nana Frimpong Abebrese, a Fetish Priest from Akomadan in Ashanti, has a membership of over 45,000 farmers.
She also disclosed that Kuapa Kokoo was Fairtrade certified, as a result of which it receives premiums through the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Trust for the cocoa it sells to the Fairtrade market.
The Communication Manager said the company has four organisations, including Kuapa Kokoo Limited and Kuapa Kokoo Credit Union, which serve as a bank to members and helps members to get easy access to credit facilities.
Kuapa Kokoo also has 45% shares in Divine Chocolate Company in the UK, and 33.3% shares in Divine Chocolate Company in the USA. Ms. Kyere disclosed that the cocoa purchased by Kuapa Kokoo Limited is checked three times by the Quality Control Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board, before it leaves shed, depot and finally the port, making the company one of the leading cocoa buying companies in the country, producing quality cocoa beans for export.