Deputy Lands Minister commissions 70 motorbikes for protection of forest reserves

The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Lands and Forestry, Benito Owusu-Bio on Wednesday, 26th October 2022 commissioned 70 Yamaha cross-country motorbikes to be distributed to forest range supervisors and forest guards in the various districts of the Forestry Commission. The motorbikes, procured by the Forestry Commission are to support the transportation needs of the guards and also to monitor illegal activities in the deep parts of the forest reserves. The Deputy Minister indicated that forest guards are faced with challenges every day and it has become necessary that they are given all the logistics needed to help their patrols in the forest reserves. He continued saying "we don't have the full complement of Staff to manage all the forest reserves and so the few there must be assisted as much as possible for them to do their best". He further lauded the Commission for procuring the motorbikes from their internally generated funds while charging them to use the bikes for its intended purposes and also ensure regular maintenance. Mr. Sulemana Nyadia, a Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission receiving the keys to the bikes, expressed the Commission's gratitude to the Deputy Minister for commissioning the motorbikes while noting that the logistics received will go a long way to support their operations. He asserted that traditional Forestry work is faced with new challenges such as illegal mining and illegal logging and the tools received has come time to ease their work. The team also took the opportunity to pay a working visit to the Accra Zoo to inspect the progress of work made on preparations for the reopening of the Zoo.