Three thousand FORUM staff to lose jobs

Ho, Jan. 28, GNA - A total of 3,000 plantation workers on the Forest Protection and Resource Use Management (FORUM) Project in the Volta Region risk losing their jobs when the German government funded project comes to an end in February this year.

"The departure of the FORUM project means that 3,000 people are going to be jobless", Nana Amoah Nyarko, President of the Volta Regional Association of Community Forest Management Committees (VORAFNAC), gave the hint at the ceremonial handing over of the Project to the Forestry Commission in Ho ahead of the February 2008 deadline.

The 30 million euro project helped to rehabilitate 14,212 hectares of degraded forests and to establish 5,907 hectares of woodlots by 2007, as well as organise alternative livelihood schemes for local communities.

It also helped to build the capacities of local communities and workers of the Forestry Commission in forestry management including infrastructure.

Nana Amoah said throughout its 15 years, "more than 50 percent of the FORUM project's annual operational budget was allocated to the payment of wages in the five forest blocks covered". The forest blocks are the Kabo River Forest Reserve, Odomi River Forest Reserve, Kpandu Dayi Block Forest Reserve, Kpandu West Block Forest Reserve and Abutia Hills Forest Reserve.

Nana Amoah who recounted the benefits of the project in the target communities urged the government to absorb the workers into the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

He said for the period that the Project lasted the 3,000 plantation workers saw tremendous improvements in their annual personal incomes that enabled them to replace "their thatched buildings with quality roofing sheets" and "to sponsor their spouses and family members". "Beneficiary communities have noted a drastic decline in the incidence of certain social vices such as petty pilfering both in the towns, especially foodstuffs on the farms", Nana Amoah observed. On the re-generated forests, Nana Amoah said they had improved the microclimate conditions resulting in "increased rainfall both in intensity and duration, lower temperatures, reduction in hill slope erosion and marked decline in the occurrence of destructive winds". He said "hitherto totally lost animal species like water bucks, snails, tortoises and bush cows" had returned so also were tree species, medicinal herbs and mushrooms.

"The re-emergence of the forest also indicates that the eco-tourism potential of the Volta Region is greatly enhanced for future development", he observed.