Confiscated Rosewood To Be Auctioned For Local Use - Jinapor

Rosewood confiscated in the country will be auctioned and also used locally to prevent illegal operators who participate in the auction process from exporting the wood.Speaking at a regional consultative dialogue on small scale mining and deforestation in the Tamale, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu

Jinapor, also stressed that no one will be permitted to export rosewood, whether acquired legally or otherwise. I have set up a ministerial team chaired by the Deputy Minister for the Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Benito Owusu Bio, to liaise with the Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to ensure strict compliance

with these measures, the minister added. Although the government has placed a ban on logging, transportation and exportation of rosewood, some individuals still find their way to export the commodity which campaigners say is destroying the forest cover of northern Ghana. The ban on rosewood harvesting in Ghana first came into force in 2014. The government cited the abuse of

permits granted some loggers to harvest rosewood in the catchment area of the Bui dam as the reason for the imposition of the ban. The ban was lifted in 2017, with the Minister in charge at that time, John Peter Amewu, giving over 20 companies permission to fell the trees. But in the March 2019 the trade was also banned again following alleged corruption and the illegal trade of the resource.