A group called Concern Citizens of Atewa Landscape says they are willing to pay the government US$2 billion should it rescind the decision to mine bauxite in the Atewa forest ranger.

The group who are mainly natives of communities around the Atewa forest have vowed to go all lengths to raise the money to save the forest from being destroyed.

President of the group, Oteng Adjei at a press conference in Accra yesterday said they are ever ready to take up this responsibility because to them the forest is worth more than the value placed on it by the government.

Thus, the forest is an important water tower in Ghana as well as an internationally recognized Y biodiversity area of global significance.

 He said ever since the announcement that the forest had been leased for bauxite exploration, the forest has been at the mercy of illegal activities:

“We have local community information that indicates that illegal mining and logging is being carried out in unprecedented levels with the tacit connivance and approval of some officers of the Forestry Commission and some unnamed faces within the jurisdiction. Nana Sir Ofori Atta I is grimacing in his grave that the legacy he selflessly fought to preserve for posterity has been left to rot thus rendering useless his lofty ideals and ideas he bequeathed to posterity. 

“Not long ago, an excavator was in the forest mining but it took the alertness of the leadership of Concerned Citizens of the Atewa Landscape working in tandem with A Rocha to highlight on that illegal activity. Even that the Forestry Commission took offence and took the two NGO’s to the leaners in that the commission could not be alerted before making public their findings.”

He alleged that two souls were lost in their illegal quest for gold at the Asiakwah stretch of the reserve.

Mr. Adjei states the press conference, which also marked the celebration of International Day of Forests under the theme, “Forest and Sustainable production and consumption” is a period that the group needs both civil and legal support to enable them compel the Forestry Commission to deliver on its mandate.

He said the group badly needed the societal help because “We are in very dark days in the life of the Atewa Forest Reserve, as the Minerals Commission, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency neglected their core mandates of protecting the environment leading to the creation of a myriad of artificial pools and in some cases, craters filled with water that has taken the lives of a lot of precious innocent souls. 

“We are all privy to the surcharge that was brought on them by the Auditor General after their investigations”

The president also said the country does not need any new set of laws to protect and safeguard the environment and natural resources but attitudinal change because negligence is the canker, eating up the entire fabric of natural resource.