CHIEF CALLS FOR FIRE VOLUNTEERS
Chief calls for fire volunteers
9 November 2007
published by www.ghanaweb.com
Ghana — The Krontihene of Akroso Traditional Area in the Afram Plains, Nana Akuamoah Boateng, has said in an interview with The Crusading GUIDE that the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment should introduce a new module under the National Youth Employment Programme, to combat bushfires and activities of Fulani herdsmen in the area.
The chiefs appeal was to find a solution to the perennial bush fires that occur in the Afram Plains especially, during the dry season.
He said bush fires in the area were deliberately set by the youth who hunt for game as a source of livelihood, while the Fulani herdsmen also burn the grass so as to get fresh ones for their cattle to feed on.
Nana Akuamoah Boateng suggested that the youth in Afram Plains should be given employment as fire volunteers under the Youth Employment Programme to improve their standard of living in order to motivate them to protect the communities from the activities of charcoal burners, hunters and Fulani herdsmen.
He said last year alone, more than 50 kilometers square of farm lands and 320 acres of afforestation project were destroyed as a result of bush fires.
The Krontihene noted that as measures to restore the vegetation of the Afram Plains, an award scheme was instituted last year by the Kwahu North District Assembly to give farm inputs to communities to protect their farms against bush fires.
He commended the Assembly for its move to conserve the environment, and called for more decisive methods to solve the problems in the Plains.
