National timber monitoring team vows to deal with cartels

The nine-member National Timber Monitoring Team (NTMT), inaugurated in January this year’s to streamline activities in the timber industry and bring sanity has called for support from stakeholders to ensure strict enforcement of legal frameworks governing the space throughout the entire value chain to yield the needed results.

The head of the team, Alhaji Mohammed Kwaku Doku, identified compliance challenges after a two-day working visit to Ahafo, Bono and Bono East regions primarily due to high security threat, weak logistics and political interference.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic on Monday, Alhaji Doku, said the situation called for improved logistics for the timber industry development to be able to face off with the unseen hands depleting the forest illegally and denying government of adequate revenue.

He said as a result of the high security threats and attacks on personnel especially around the Goaso enclave, officials of the Forestry Commission needed to be adequately empowered to be able to safeguard Ghana’s forest reserve.

The head proposed the mergence of the Forest Service Division and the Timber Industry and Development Division along the Timber value chain at various checkpoints to ease movement and stamp out corrupted.

Beyond dealing with corruption, this, he said, would avoid ambiguity and ensure that only the appropriate documentation were applicable to the industry from the forest to the final destination.

“The establishment of the monitor team, similar to what is being done to the galamsey fight, demonstrates government’s commitment to sustainable forest management and inspire confidence among stakeholders,” he told Daily Graphic.

Collision 

Alhaji Doku said the fight to stamp out the cancer was a tough one after identifying collision between the illegal timber operators and a number of sawmill operators.

He told the Daily Graphic that the cartel in the industry was quite tricky and vast requiring tact and intelligence to “wipe them out.”

Collaboration 

Alhaji Doku said the team was collaborating with the security agencies with a renewed strategy to target those shortchanging government and bring them to book.

“Already alot of underground work is being done in a coordinated effort to protect the country’s forest reserve and ensure that only legal activities were conducted.

Commendation 

The head commended government for the establishment of the monitoring team and expressed the hope that all miscreants would be brought to book.