Forestry Commission warns wildlife traffickers

The Forestry Commission has issued a strong warning to some wildlife traffickers who are, or intend to use Ghana as a transit destination to operate their nefarious activities to rescind or face drastic action.

“We would like to send a message to them that they have no place in Ghana. We will smoke them out,” The commission assures.

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The warning follows a June 16, 2017 publication carried by the Associated Press that Malaysian custom officials had seized nearly 400 kilograms of Pangolin scales worth $1.2 million Dollars from Ghana.

Pangolin is classified as one of the  endangered species  banned globally  by the  Convention on  International Trade  in Endangered  of  Fauna  and  Flaura.

In Ghana, Pangolin is classified as a schedule one species which is completely protected from hunting, capturing or destroying at all times.

However, in spite these warnings, unscrupulous individuals are capturing and exporting the creatures thereby bringing their numbers to critically low.

According to the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, Wildlife crime is becoming serious in Ghana and globally, thus, it is important to for all Ghanaians to help in the conservation the country’s wildlife species.

Addressing the Media in  Accra on Friday, the Director of  the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission,Nana Kofi Adu- Nsiah warned  the  commission would  do  all  within  it  means  to fish out and prosecute  the  perpetrators.

He  noted, “we  are going to intensify  our collaboration with the Customs Police, NACOB,Aiport  officials,  informants  and  our intelligence network  to  combat this  crime. We will plead with all of you to join us in combating wildlife crime in Ghana.”

He  indicated that the Commission in collaboration with the Intelligence Unit  of  the  Narcotics  Controls Board  had  done  some  investigations   which  has  led  to the arrests  of   Ghanaians who  have  confessed  their involvement   in the illegal export of Pangolin scales  from  Ghana to Malaysia.  They confessed that the Scales are labeled Oyster Shells in order to deceive airport officials.