The Volta Regional Police Command has intercepted a truck loaded with Rosewood illegally logged in the Kalakpa Resource Reserve at Abutia in the Ho West District of the Volta Region.
Five suspected illegal loggers who were also arrested have been released on bail. The Command has also confiscated lumbering machines and indicated that it has mounted 24 hour surveillance at the Rosewood processing site.
The Volta Regional Police Command upon a tip off over the weekend arrested five people in connection with illegally logging Rosewood at the Kalakpa Resource Reserve.
Residents who spoke on anonymity, said the illegal loggers have been operating at a site near the Resource Reserve in Ayiwata-Battor in the North Tongu District since October last year.
They disclosed that work is mainly supervised by Chinese Nationals especially when the trucks are loaded to transport the consignment to destinations suspected to be in the Republic of Togo. They also alleged that at least 10 trucks are transported from the site weekly.
The Chiefs and people of Abutia have been agitating against the failure of the Forestry Commission to effectively safeguard the reserve from illegal lumbering and poaching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaf5e64SJ44
They have therefore appealed to government to hand over management of the reserve to their traditional authority.
