Accra, May 14, GNA - Mr. Andrew Adjei Yeboah, Deputy Minister, Lands Forestry and Mines (LFM) on Monday identified inadequate and lack of comprehensive Management Planning of Forest and Wildlife resources as a major challenge against development and poverty alleviation. He said the 1994 policy on forest and wildlife therefore recognized the important role effective management planning played in sustaining those critical resources to meet the socio-economic and environmental needs of the country.

Mr. Adjei Yeboah said this at the opening of a three-day national workshop on forest management planning organized by the World Wide Fund (WWF) and the Global Forest Trade Network (GFTN) in Accra.

The workshop under the theme: "Sustainable Forest Management in Ghana, the Importance of Forest Management Planning," brought together participants from the United State Forest Service, the Forestry Commission in Ghana, the Ministry of LFM to discuss and find solutions to the problem of the lack of standardized Forest Management Plans for the forest reserves and the Timber Utilization Contract areas. Mr. Adjei Yeboah noted that the forestry sector constituted six per cent of the country's GDP and employed 120,00 people in the formal sector, adding that the sector supports the livelihoods of about 70 per cent of the rural population.

He said one of the setbacks of the Forestry Commission's effort to achieving sustainable forest management was its weakness to respond to the changes in technological and socio-economic needs of society due to inadequate financial resources.

" The lack of capacity is manifested by the fact that some reserves do not have management plans while those which have are yet to be updated to meet current demands"

Mr. Adjei Yeboah therefore called on the WWF to collaborate effectively with the Forestry Commission in the designing and implementation of a sustainable forest and management plan in Ghana.

Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, Director, WWF-Africa and Madagascar said WWF would continue to work to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and build a future of harmony with nature through the conservation of biological biodiversity, the sustainability of natural resources and reduction in pollution and wasteful consumption. She said the WWF's global target was to establish and maintain viable representatives of protected areas in the world's threatened and most biologically significant forest regions.

Mr. Abraham Baffoe of WWF outlined some major constraints as the inadequate system for timber tracking, document on forestry management planning and high levels of illegal harvesting, among others. 14 May 07