Timber industry to get ?200m boost

Takoradi, (Western Region) 6 Jan. '99,

The Timber Export and Development Board ( TEDB ) and the Forest Products Inspection Bureau (FPIB), have jointly pledged 200 million cedis to support plantation development research. This was contained in a release by Dr J. R. Cobbinah of the Forest Research Institute of Ghana, Kumasi, and issued to the press in Takoradi on Tuesday. He said the first allocation of 50 million cedis will be used for the development of infrastructure and the production of improved planting material such as teak, cedilla and wawa as well as support plantation development in the country. Dr Cobbinah said other species including kusia, dahoma, pines and eucalyptus will be added later. He said the use of tree plantations is widely advocated as a redemption measure to reforest degraded lands and provide wood for industrial, social and environmental objectives. To support plantation development as envisaged in the Forestry Development Master Plan from 1996 to 2010, there is the need to generate appropriate plantation techniques for tree species to attain optimum growth, Dr Cobbinah said. GRi