Drowned forests to rescue living forests
The trees in Lake Volta, Africa’s largest man-made lake, were submerged
40 years ago when a hydroelectric dam was constructed. But because the
forest was made up of rot-resistant hardwood trees that have been
submerged in oxygen-deficient water, they haven’t deteriorated.
The forest will be logged by Canadian company CSR Developments, which was set up especially to harvest underwater forests in an effort to reduce the deforestation and greenhouse-gas pollution caused by the logging and burning of terrestrial forests. CSR has an agreement with the Ghanaian government to log 350,000 hectares of the lake’s 850,000 hectares of drowned forests over the next 15 years. More than 100 people have drowned there after their boats or ferries collided with submerged trees.
‘Underwater logging doesn’t require the construction of roads,’ said Wayne Dunn, president of CSR Developments. ‘The harvest is simply moved on water, which has less carbon impact than on land.’
Robert Bamfo of Ghana’s Forestry Commission told Reuters: ‘The project aims to harvest 14 million cubic metres of timber worth about US$4billion (£2.2billion). This will reduce the pressure on our forests.’ Ghana’s terrestrial forests are disappearing at a rate of 1.9 per cent a year.
Twenty per cent of the profits will be given to the government of Ghana, and CSR hopes to bring US$100million of investment into the country. Assuming the project is successful in Ghana, CSR hopes to start large-scale environmentally friendly underwater logging in other tropical countries with submerged forests.
November 2008
The forest will be logged by Canadian company CSR Developments, which was set up especially to harvest underwater forests in an effort to reduce the deforestation and greenhouse-gas pollution caused by the logging and burning of terrestrial forests. CSR has an agreement with the Ghanaian government to log 350,000 hectares of the lake’s 850,000 hectares of drowned forests over the next 15 years. More than 100 people have drowned there after their boats or ferries collided with submerged trees.
‘Underwater logging doesn’t require the construction of roads,’ said Wayne Dunn, president of CSR Developments. ‘The harvest is simply moved on water, which has less carbon impact than on land.’
Robert Bamfo of Ghana’s Forestry Commission told Reuters: ‘The project aims to harvest 14 million cubic metres of timber worth about US$4billion (£2.2billion). This will reduce the pressure on our forests.’ Ghana’s terrestrial forests are disappearing at a rate of 1.9 per cent a year.
Twenty per cent of the profits will be given to the government of Ghana, and CSR hopes to bring US$100million of investment into the country. Assuming the project is successful in Ghana, CSR hopes to start large-scale environmentally friendly underwater logging in other tropical countries with submerged forests.
November 2008
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