The Council of Ghanaian Chiefs, members of the Okyeman Foundation in Holland
The Council of Ghanaian Chiefs, Members of the Okyeman Foundation and the Ghanaian Community in the Netherlands have expressed concern about what they regard as a threat to the Atiwa Rain Forest in the Akyem Abuakwa area for bauxite mining.
Their statement was contained in a concert they organised in Amsterdam, Holland, with the President of MUSIGA in the lead.
The concert dubbed: “Save Atiwa Benefit” canvassed the support of the Ghanaian Community to urge government to secure Atiwa for water and not for bauxite mining.
In a subsequent petition to President Akufo-Addo, the chiefs suggested to him to invoke an executive instrument to secure and upgrade the Atiwa Rain Forest into a National Park, a living legacy which can be named after the revered king, “Late His Royal Majesty Nana Sir Ofori Atta I,” whose 75th anniversary is celebrated in the month of August.
“The Atiwa forest was established in 1929 during the leadership of the late Nana Sir Ofori Atta I and can be a legacy for his memory and recognition of his generational leadership for Ghanaians,” the group added.
The petition which is signed by 14 chiefs led by Barima Asamoah Kofi IV (Chairman CoGhaC) and (Dr. Stephen Kwasi Oduro) Abakomahene of the Akyem Kotoku Abohyendwa Kofi Stool and Divisional Chief of Abirem Traditional Area states that ‘the Atiwa Range Forest which is also known as Kwaebibirem is an area of high hydrological importance and also of significant value for the global persistence of biodiversity, harbouring rare and threatened species found in few other places in the world.’
‘The Atiwa forest is the source of water for up to 5 million Ghanaians in Accra, Eastern and Central Regions of Ghana and so bauxite mining in the forest would greatly endanger the water provisioning services and the large number of species in the forest that are already globally threatened with extinction,’ the petition added.