Mr Emmanuel Lignule, the Upper West Regional Director for the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA has emphasized the need for communities to enact byelaws against the harvesting of trees, especially economic trees such as shea, “dawadawa” and red berries.
He said currently there was no law against cutting trees in off reserve and that the existing law only prohibit the cutting of trees in forest reserves and cocoa trees.
Mr Liglule said this in an interview with Info Radio at the week end on the occasion of the World Environment Day on the theme: “Ecosystem Restoration”.
He explained that it was difficult to control the cutting of shea trees for instance, because the activities are scattered, adding that if the cutting was organized, the permit could define how the cutting should be done.
He said the EPA is currently engaging communities and traditional authorities on shea tree cutting and encouraging them to enact byelaws to regulate shea cutting at the community level.
He noted that some communities currently have byelaws against tree cutting but that those byelaws are not effective due to the lack of strong leadership at the local level.
The EPA regional Boss also indicated that they are educating the people on the importance of protecting the environment, and how they can harvest trees sustainably.
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