Section one of the Control and Prevention of Bushfire Act 1990 states “except as otherwise provided under this Act, it is unlawful for any person to start a bushfire for any purpose”.  

But, the bee farmers noted at a sensitisation meeting held in Techiman that because the Act was not enforced to the letter, bushfires were causing extensive destruction to farms and collapsing their economic activities as well.

It was organised by the Unity Bee Keepers Association of Brong-Ahafo (UBABA) in collaboration with the Centre of Posterity Interest Organisation (COPIO), a Non-Governmental Organisation and service providers.

Attended by bee keepers, honey producers and sellers, the meeting formed part of activities of an advocacy project being implemented by the Association with support from the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund.

The project is aimed at helping to restore the hopes of agriculture business by fighting bushfires in Brong-Ahafo, as well as identifying and removing certain bottlenecks affecting the activities of bee keepers in the region.

Mr. Kingsley Owusu Acheampong, the Chairman of UBABA observed that by-laws enacted by Municipal and District Assemblies to control bushfires were not making any significant impact, thus the need to enforce the PNDC Law by prosecuting offenders and fire setters.

He said in the last major season, bee keepers in the region lost more than 100 bee hives due to recurring bushfires, which remained annual ritual in the region.

Mr. Acheampong pointed out that bee keeping was a lucrative economic venture which had the potential to fetch and add to the country’s foreign exchange earnings and appealed to the government to look back and support the farmers.

But, he added that the devastating effects of bushfires on their businesses and other sectors of agriculture were enormous and thus required stringent measures and decisive action to control and prevent its occurrence.

Dr John Akparep, a Researcher, and Lecturer at the University of Development Studies (UDS), observed that traditional method of agriculture remained a huge contributory factor to recurring bushfires and destroyed lands and the ozone layer as well.

Bee keeping, he explained had huge benefits on agriculture, saying besides individual farmers profits, bee keeping enriched the farm environment, build on and improved on biodiversity.

Dr Akparep explained that the project was ready to collaborate with the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to intensify fire safety education in rural and fire prone communities in the region.

He said traditional authorities had enormous roles to play in fighting bushfires and appealed to chiefs and queens to use their traditional powers to enforce existing bushfire by-laws.

Mr. Charles Opoku, a bee keeper, called on the government to strengthen fire volunteers by providing them with wellington boots and other relevant logistics for fire-fighting and observed that because many of the fire volunteers in the communities were handicapped, it was extremely difficult for them to attend to bushfires.

Mr Opoku, who is a fire volunteer, said because volunteers had no strong legal backing, it was difficult for them to deal decisively with fire setters.