Gold would go away; let’s develop a national park at Atewa forest – Okyenhene

The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin has called on government through the Ministry of Tourism to shift attention towards developing the Atewa forest rather than mining its gold.

The revered king said this at the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi over the weekend when Tourism Minister Dr. Awal Mohammed, his Deputy, Mark Okraku-Mantey, and officials from the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) paid a courtesy call on him.

“Develop a national park at Atewa forest, the species that God has given us there is phenomenal but if we begin to look at gold and its recklessness of galamsey and other things in the forest, we would never get there,” the Okyenhene said as quoted on 3news.com.

Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin continued, “Gold would go away. It is not a renewable resource. The reckless felling of timber is a disregard for our nature. Build a museum in addition to the park that would tell our history and show artefacts.”

On his part, Tourism Minister Dr. Awal Mohammed explained that the visit to Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin is to seek permission and support to identify two iconic tourism sites in the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council to develop to international standards and create more jobs as well.

“We want to exploit the tourism potential in the traditional council and create more jobs. Tourism has the potential to create more jobs for the youth in this country. As at now, we have 670,000 jobs [and] we think we can do more than that,” Dr. Awal Mohammed assured.

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has led to low patronage of tourist sites in the country, the Tourism Minister and his deputy Mark Okraku-Mantey have sight on reviving the industry to make it more attractive.

As a result, they have already had several engagements and continue to do so as they aim to work hard to succeed in the mandate given by President Akufo-Addo.