For preaching against illegal chainsaw activities, the church of Pentecost at Apori in Oda is losing its membership, mostly women who are said to be marrying chainsaw operators.

An elder of the church, Samuel Kwadwo Darkwa, who is also a member of the community Forest Committee (CFC) disclosed this and said he had been threatened many times for preaching against the practice and giving information to the forestry officials.

Those engaged in the illegal chainsaw business, the majority of whose wives are members of the church, cited the absence of jobs in the community as the reason for indulging in it.

According to Elder Darkwa, barely two months ago, he spoke against illegal chainsaw activities in the church and followed it up to the houses of some of the women to appeal to them to convince their husbands to desist from such activities.

“Since then the members of the church began to dwindle and my investigations indicate that the operators have decided not to give money they make from the illegal activities to their wives offertory in the church”, adding for that the church would not budge but rather continue to preach the good news to save the town’s forest from degradation and depletion.

Elder Darkwa was speaking at a training workshop on “Strengthening the capabilities of forest fringe communities in Southern Ghana to halt illegal logging”. The Workshop was part of the Forestry Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under the Voluntary Partnership Agreements (FLEGT/VPAs), which Ghana signed with the European Union (EU) for identifying and excluding illegal timber from the international market.

The ACP FLEGT project, begin sponsored through the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), is implemented by the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of Ghana (CSIR).

About 40 members of the CFC from eight communities in Oda attended the workshop to discuss strategies with which to completely halt illegal chainsaw operations in the area.

Most of the participants accused the forestry officials of conniving with the illegal operators as chainsaw machines seized from them and handed over to the officials are almost immediately returned to the owners.

They appeal to the officials to project them by not giving them out for any information they volunteer to them since the illegal operators threaten them.

Dr. Dominic Blay, a Forest Ecologist with the FORIG and project coordinator, asked the participants to report any case of threat to the police saying “it is criminal”.

He urged them to intensify the monitoring of illegal loggings as the VPAs would be strictly enforced next year.