Tumu, (UW/R), Aug. 3, GNA – The Sissalla East Municipality has inaugurated a 13-Member Protected Area Management Advisory Unit (PAMAU) to manage the Gbele Park.
The committee is also tasked with the mandate to advise the park management on effective ways of fostering community collaboration to win the support of fringe communities to protect the Gbele reserve.
Speaking at the inauguration of the committee in Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality, Mr Fuseini Batong Yakubu, the Sissala East Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said the Gbele Reserve was one of the oldest reserves yet to be given attention.
“If we can give it the attention that it deserves, it will grow to attract a lot of people, we often complain about having a lot of maize and forget about the eco-tourism potential in the area, which can give us revenue but the roads in the area are terrible,” he stated.
Mr Yakubu appealed to the government to create a good working atmosphere for the place as a tourist centre.
He also appealed to the road minister to help fix the roads in the area to realise the full tourism potential of the Municipality.
“Without roads, people cannot move to see what is in the reserve and what is happening; we have cried about the road for a long time and urgently want the government to do something about the roads,” the MCE said.
Kuoro Mahmoud Savei, the Chairman of the PAMAU committee, expressed gratitude for the inauguration of the committee and assured stakeholders of working to justify the confidence reposed in members.
He said, “We have boasted as being the first when it comes to cereals, but the roads to the reserve and most of the communities are bad.”
He, therefore, reminded the Minister of Roads and Highways and the Upper West Regional Minister that they were still waiting for the roads to be fixed in the Sissala area.
Dr Maabier Polycup, the Park Manager, announced that the three PAMAUs that would be established in the three administrative districts would be supported to conserve a total land size of 244,813.55 hectares.
He added that August 1, marked the beginning of the annual ban on hunting and capturing of wildlife species except for the grasscutter.
Dr Polycup assured the people that the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project (GLRSSMP) would bring about collaborative resource management for fringe communities to reduce wildlife-human conflict, wildlife crop damage, and wildlife domestic animal conflict, among others.
