Allow offenders to face full rigours of forest laws-Forest Manager  

Mr Francis Brobbey, the Sunyani District Manager, Forestry Commission (FC), has called on politicians, traditional authorities and people in leadership positions to desist from begging for offenders of forest and environmental-related laws.He also called on the police and judiciary to facilitate speedy prosecution of such cases and apply harsher punishment on convicts to deter like-minded miscreants from entering the nation's forest reserves illegally.Mr Brobbey said forestry and related environmental crime remained a serious offence, hence the need for chiefs, queens, and politicians to stay away and allow offenders to face the full rigours of the law to control the wanton destruction of the nation's forest resources and the vegetative cover.He said FC had several cases of forest crimes pending before the courts and expressed worry that the delays in the prosecution of the cases were impeding efforts to control illegal logging and lumbering in the nation's forest reserves.In an interview with the Gha na News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Mr Brobbey regretted that unnecessary interference in the arrest and prosecution of suspects of forestry crimes was impeding efforts to safeguard and resuscitate the nation's depleted forest resources and reserves.He said it was unacceptable for people to intervene and plead for offenders of forest and other environmental crimes, including illegal mining, saying until such practice was stopped it would be difficult for the nation to enforce forestry laws and protect the forestry resources.Mr Brobbey said the Sunyani District Forest had no problem with illegal mining, however illegal lumbering and logging were taking a huge and devastating toll on the forest reserves in the area and called for collective efforts to bring the situation under control.He observed that illegal loggers were now undertaking their unscrupulous activities in some of the forest reserves at night to outwit security operatives and forest guards and called on the people in forest fringe communities t o help the FC clamp down on the loggers.As the embodiment of the people and custodian of lands, Mr Brobbey said the contributions of chiefs and queens remained essential in protecting and preserving the nation's forestry resources and pleaded with them to support in that direction.He said another key challenge confronting the Sunyani Forest District was the influx of nomadic Fulani herdsmen whose cattle grazing activities were also causing extensive damage to forestry products.Source: Ghana News Agency