Managers of the Ankasa Conservation Forest in the Western Region are appealing for increased patrolling logistics and modern drones for its patrol team to ward off poachers and encroachers.
The forest which is a tourist attraction, and a biodiversity research area is due to its rare animal and plant species.
Despite Ghana Gas Company’s ongoing planting of over 8,000 Mahogany trees on the boundaries and degraded areas of Ankasa Conversation Forest, it is Ghana’s only remaining wet evergreen rainforest.
Managers of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission expressed concerns that failure on the part of authorities to increase its patrol resources and equip the current 26-man patrol team with hi-tech monitoring equipment, Ankasa risks poachers and ‘galamsey’ activities.
Covering an area of 509 square kilometres, Ankasa was gazetted in 1976 for the protection of special plant species and rare forest animals that also attract tourists. With the increasing global carbon emissions and its resulting worsening environmental impact including floods, investments in Carbon Sink such as the Ankasa Conservation Forest in the Western Region have become very relevant.
The Ankasa Conservation Forest Park Manager, Dramani Dauda Jawat, while thanking Ghana Gas for its investment in Ankasa’s conservation forest said Ankasa’s rare species and wildlife have made it an attraction to biodiversity research.
He emphasised the need for the forest to be protected from poachers and a possible ‘galamsey’ encroachment.
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