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Bush meat hunting worth $350 million
annually in Ghana
Kumasi, Aug. 1, Ghanadot/GNA - The annual volume of bush
meat harvested in Ghana is estimated at 384,992 tons valued
at 350 million dollars as against the total annual
consumption also estimated at 225,287 tons and valued at 205
million dollars, authorities said.
Nana Kofi Adu-Nsiah, Executive Director of the Wildlife
Division of the Forestry Commission, announced this at the
launch of 2008 Close Season on hunting in Kumasi on Friday.
He noted that bush meat is also a trade item that
contributes significantly to household incomes and the
economy through income generation and protein production.
Nana Adu-Nsiah noted that under legislative provisions,
hunters are required to obtain and pay for a license to hunt
during the designated hunting season, adding that group
hunting is outlawed and that different species are given
varying degrees of legal protection through their inclusion
in appropriate legislative schedules.
He said the Wildlife Division was responsible for licensing
and enforcing regulations throughout the country and that
bush meat traders were required to operate under the license
issued by District Assemblies.
The Executive Director stated that the Wildlife Conservation
Regulations L. I. 685 required that during the four months
of August 1 to December 1 each year; there should be no
hunting of wild animals with the exception of the grass
cutter.
He said non-observance of the Close Season would undermine
the sustainability and eventual existence of wild animals
thereby depriving Ghanaians of a valuable resource for
development.
He asked the public not to patronize the sale of bush meat,
dead, alive or smoked except for grass cutters so that
hunters would find it uneconomical to hunt those animals
during the close season.
Nana Adu-Nsiah appealed to the Police and traditional rulers
to arrest offenders by notifying the nearest Wildlife
Division and other Forestry Commission Offices.
GNA
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