VOLTA REGION IS THREATENED BY DESERTIFICATION (PAGE 28, MAY 22, 2010)

THE unprecedented rate of forest degradation in the Volta Region in recent years is alarming.
The situation is due to the high risks it poses for the people in an era that a new jargon has been created in the environmental dictionary called climate change, which continues to hit the headlines in the media and on the Internet daily.
The region is now associated with high rates of annual bush fires, overgrazing, chemical farming, tree felling and the overzealous clearance of vegetation for farming purposes, as well as varied forms of environmentally unfriendly practices.
These practices cumulatively are increasingly causing a big threat to environmental stability in the region with forests being reduced to savannah and savannah to shrubs and deserts.
The undertone crisis is a syndrome of entrenched poverty that continues to eat into the socio-economic fabric in majority of people in the region from the Atlantic coast of coastal savannah to forests and savannah zones that span the coast to the northern areas of the region.
About two years ago, the Volta Region earned the unenviable title as the leader in bush fires throughout the country.
The title was unconsciously earned as a result of the insatiable search for game during the dry season, palm wine tapping, cigarette smoking, using fire to clear weeds by the roadside, charcoal burning and “Akpeteshie” distillation, among others.
Of late, a large herd of cattle has consistently moved from the Tongu and Mafi lands across Adaklu, Ave, Ziope and Agotime–Kpetoe into the Ho Municipality and are heading towards the north with impunity.
The cattle aggravate the already excruciating situation where the only pastime for the communities along the Ho-Kpetoe highway is the felling of trees for firewood and charcoal burning.
One can, therefore, observe that the vegetation in these areas continues to depreciate every year as a result of unregulated mode of cattle grazing and bush fires that tend to change the vegetation in these areas to stunted plants.
Every dry season, the Fulani herdsmen and their allies burn vegetation ahead of time, in anticipation of green grass sprouting on time to serve as fodder for cattle.
As if that is not enough, the use of chemicals from the preparation stage of land for farming to the harvesting stage of crops has become the order of the day.
Despite the fact that chemicals have the highest potential of generating soil infertility, there is a nuisance of several advertisements on radio and the print media encouraging the use of chemicals as weed killers and fertilisers without acknowledging the dangers associated with their use.
It is known that fire, as well as chemicals, destroy micro-organisms responsible for enhancing soil fertility, and the combined effect of these practices could eventually make the soil incapable of sustaining the growth of grass; a situation that could lead to desertification.
What has made the situation worse is the concession granted to sawmills in the Volta Region leading to the invasion of forests by the operators of the mills to cut down trees as raw materials for their industries.
It is painful that although the Forestry Services Division has not granted licence for concession in several areas in the region, some of the sawmill operators encroach on lands where they destroy crops such as cocoa, and clear lands to the detriment of the welfare of the people who cannot complain due to ignorance.
As a result, the forest is losing its cover and the land being exposed to the hazards of the weather, which could accelerate desertification.
The environmental hazards confronting the people is another problem inflicted on them in addition to the impoverishment caused as a result of the drastic decline in the cocoa industry in many forest areas leading to excruciating poverty.
To prevent the creation of an artificial desert the government and corporate bodies should support grand reforestation programmes to replenish what has been cut or destroyed.
The licensing of sawmills in the forest zones of the Volta Region must be reviewed and limited.
There must be vigorous tree-planting exercises to replace lost ones to avert desertification.