The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, has stated that the Achimota Forest Reserve has not been sold.
According to the minister rumours suggesting the government has gazetted an Executive Instrument (E.I.) to approve the redesignation, sale or development of the land are fake and must be utterly disregarded.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Mr Jinapor wrote that the “Achimota Forest has not and will not be sold.”
The first page of an eight-page document was widely circulated on social media, purporting that the classification of the Achimota Forest Reserve has been lifted to pave way for possible redevelopment.
The Instrument gazetted on behalf of President Akufo-Addo by the Lands Minister Samuel Abdulai Jinapor stipulated that effective May 1, 2022, the peripheral portions of the land on which the Forest is located shall cease to be a forest reserve, pursuant to Section 19 of the Forest Act, 1927 (CAP. 157).
The cessation, per that document, was to be effective on May 1, 2022.
President Akufo-Addo also ordered the creation of a master plan for the development of the peripheral portions of land by the District Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority.
The Authority was also tasked to take into consideration the protection of the ecological integrity of an adjoining forest reserve while preparing the master plan which would be approved by the Sector Minister.
