The government must increase investment in the forest sector to enhance the country’s environmental resilience, job creation and economic growth, the World Bank has said.
In addition, the World Bank, said the country must shift from traditional approaches to technology-driven, high-value and diversified forest industries to derive more value from the sector.
Speaking at the closing of the Ghana National Landscape Forum, the Programme Leader, Planet Department of the World Bank in charge of Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Naila Ahmed, said the forest sector had huge potential which should be harnessed to boost job creation and enhance the country’s economic growth.
The three-day forum was on the theme “Natural resource management and forest economy for inclusive and sustainable growth”, the last day of which was focused on the forestry sector on the theme “Ghana’s Forestry Economy.”
Ms Ahmed said the country’s natural resources remained at the heart of its economic and environmental sustainability and should be tapped to accelerate the country’s development.
She said progress was being made to address the challenges of deforestation, land degradation and climate-related threats to improve livelihoods and economic growth.
“Over the past three decades, we have witnessed the government’s strong commitment to a sustainable forest economy through the various projects such as climate-smart cocoa production and landscape restoration to pioneering REDD+ carbon payment,” Ms Ahmed stated.
She said achieving large-scale impact required a coordinated, phased approach with targeted investments to institutional reform and capacity building, scaling up sustainable, participatory and inclusive forest management.
According to her, strengthening inclusive value chains for timber, non-timber products and ecotourism would boost the growth of forestry and help the country to derive a lot of benefits from the sector.
The Technical Director in charge of Forestry at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Joseph Osiakwan, said the programme brought state actors, non-governmental organisations and development partners such as the World Bank to discuss the forestry economy under the Ghana Forestry Project which was being developed, to leverage the untapped areas of the forest sector.
He said the forestry sector contributed a lot to Ghana’s economy through employment, foreign exchange and ecotourism.
However, Mr Osiakwan said illegal mining, population growth, agricultural expansion were depleting the country’s forest reserves.
The Technical Director said it was in that direction that the Ghana Forest Economy Project was being developed to come with measures to protect the country’s forest and derive more gains from the sector.
Mr Osiakwan said the Ghana Forest Economy Project is being supported by the World Bank and the conceptual stage would focus more on ecotourism, to help derive maximum benefits from the country’s forestry sector.
He said Ghana had largely focused on timber and could rake in more revenue like the Eastern African countries.
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Professor Patrick Agbesinyale, in his closing remarks, lauded the participants for the insights they shared on the management of the country’s natural resources, the ecosystem account and natural capital accounting.
He said the suggestions made would shape the policies in management of the country’s natural resources.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
