Robbing Peter to pay Paul

One interesting thing about life is relaxation. After having a very challenging two months, I decided to crown my efforts with site seeing. This the story of my journey into Apedwa Rainforest. The government of Ghana introduced A Go Green Ghana Initiative which I have reported about in my subsequent reports. This initiative is a very good move and I have personally participated in it because it is the right to do; it involved the planting of trees all around the entire country.

Apedwa is 114km from where I am based (New Sebrepor), and Apedwa is less than a kilometer from Kyebi (The Hometown of the President of Ghana). My title Robbing Peter to pay Paul might seem weird but I will justify it. My aim of writing this piece is not to discredit or shame any individual, but when something is wrong, as an activist and enthusiast of the environment, I ought to report it regardless of the damages this may cause.

Apedwa is a very popular town in the Eastern region of Ghana. It is mostly known as a cocoa growing hub in the country. Some farmers in there have been awarded the best farmers over the season and the town is a well to do one.

Just about 200 meters into the Forest, I see nice species of plants, gleaming and gloaming sunlight, gazing through the tiny spaces in between leaves to reach my sight. The smell life, so nice within this space. I come across two flowing streams, so neat and so nice, I had to take a drink from them. Within the stream I could see life hoisting up and down like an oscillatory motion of a ball. Crabs and fishes could be seen clearly with just a gaze. All seems well till my heart is finally broken.

On my way up the hilly freaky mountains, I hear moans! Moans of chain saw machines, screaming through the forest like a stolen baby crying for its mother! I wondered how this could be possible! How could trees be fell in this forest? I quiz myself like a mid-term exams. In the city of Accra, the President is leading initiatives to plant trees yet in his own background there trees being felled illegally in plain sight and nothing can be done about it. Disgusting enough, as they log illegally they also steal crops from farmers who are not around to look after their crops, since it is in the forest. I was preview to this as some crops of the owner of the farm we were visiting had been stolen without his knowledge.

So we “waste” our time doing something, the next person takes advantage and destroys it all. A tree which was said to be more 65 years had been fell and it was fresh meaning the loggers might have hidden as they heard as approaching. This is bad and it has to stop. If rules are being enforced, it must not only apply to one faction and the others be set free. This where our leaders fail and continue to fail us. So the action of robbing Peter to Paul continues and the cycle never ends. Ghana deserves better, Africa deserves better, The World deserves better. Funny enough, it is this same leaders who conveyed together in Glasgow to propose and accept COP26, Hmmmm…. What a world we live in.

Green Cheers From Ghana