Sustainable management of the tropical high forest of Ghana

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Date
1997-07-14
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Abstract
The Forestry Department is the sole body responsible for forest management in Ghana. This all important responsibility has not been carried out effectively and efficiently to a great extent, resulting in the degradation of the forest environment. The Department is plagued with management problems, which inhibit its performance in terms of sustainable management of Tropical High Forest. However the problem is not management alone, other external factors come into play. A case in point is the activities of chain saw operators, concession holders and farmers who illegally operate in reserved forest. The primary objective of this study is to find out the role and problems of the Forestry Department and to suggest some recommendations for sustainable forest management. The study involved the use of primary and secondary data. The primary data were obtained from the fieldwork conducted. This involved an interview of the personnel of the Forestry Department. The secondary data were obtained through a review of related library materials on forest management. The study revealed that poor allocation of labour, nature of the Forestry Department as a civil service, low salaries and poor conditions of services are some of the factors affecting the performance of the Forestry Department. In the light of this, it is recommended that if the Forestry Department becomes autonomous and also private people are encourage to enter into private plantations or agro-forestry, forest sustainability can be achieved. In conclusion, if the Forestry Department is accorded the help that it needs, it would finally improve their performance to ensure forest sustainability in the year 2020 a proposed by the International Tropical Timber Organisation.
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Postgraduate Diploma in Economics and Industrial Management, 1997
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