The Nkoranza District Assembly has organized a workshop for local fire volunteers and the district’s anti-bushfire campaign team on strategies in combating bushfires.

The workshop also evaluated the activities of the participants in 2006 and 2007.

Mr Atta Ameyaw, Brong-Ahafo regional rural fire co-ordinator, urged community leaders to support and encourage volunteers in the fight against bushfires.

He recalled that bushfires led to disasters in the country in 1983, leading to loss of lives and property, poverty and famine.

He called on the volunteers not to tolerate farmers who set fires on their farms between January and March, the period noted for fire outbreaks.

Mr Ameyaw advised farmers to prepare fire belts around their farms and called on opinion leaders to organize the people to plant trees along riverbanks to avert drought.

He paid a special tribute to Nana Adu Kofi III, chief of Atekoano and the community for working to prevent bushfires in the area since 1986 and urged other communities to emulate them.

Mr Joseph Blankson Nyarko, Brong-Ahafo regional deputy coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation urged the volunteers to be mindful of the movement of Fulani herdsmen, charcoal burners, palm wine tappers and hunters whose activities could spark bushfires.

He cautioned that the law against group hunting and river pollution was still in force and warned that offenders would not be spared.

Mr Joseph Yaw Aidoo, national president of Environmentally Concerned Citizens Association of Ghana, a non-governmental organization, called on the youth to venture into economic tree plantation to enhance their livelihood while protecting the environment.