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Some holiday revelers sustained various degrees of injury when they
fell off from the Bunso Arboretum Canopy Walkway in the East Akyem
Municipality of theEast Region.
The Republic Day holiday revelers numbering about ten, are currently
receiving treatment at the Tafo Government Hospital and the Hawa
Memorial Hospital, after they were rescued by a team from the Ghana
National Ambulance Service.
The canopy walkway was constructed only two years ago by a private
developer under an arrangement with government that sought to bring
more tourists to the area.
The Bunso Arboretum Eco-tourism forest reserve, is managed by the
Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute,PGRRI, of the Center for
Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR.The 320 metre long walkway,
has five bridges and six platforms.
According to Neequaye, it was the second bridge that fell off
resulting into the injuries to the users.
She says it is unclear what may have caused the accident.But having
visited the site and used the canopy walkway early this year, Neequaye
says it could be as a result of the huge number of persons who may
have used the walkway at a time without proper crowd control.
“When I visited there early this year, we were made to walk in threes
in order to manage the load. But I suspect that being a holiday, the
users may have outnumbered the strength of the walkway. I also have
unconfirmed reports that some of the people werejumping on it without
care”.
It is unclear what kind of expertise may have gone into the
construction of thewalkway but Neequaye says assistance was sortfrom
those who constructed the canopy walkway atthe Kakum National Park in
the Central Region.
The Bunso Arboretum eco-tourism center, is a protected forest reserve,
spanning 16.5 hectares.Half of the area is semi-deciduous forest while
the other half is made up of indigenous trees, along with fruits, nuts
and timber tree species which have been introduced to Ghana by the
Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Bunso.
The Arboretum is home to over 110 species of birds, some of which are
very rare. The protected Arboretum offers them a peaceful place to
call home.The herb garden which is located in the Arboretum contains
100 different species of herbs with a wide range of uses, from food to
medicinal to aromatic.
Visitors stroll through the many kilometres of nature trails in
thearboretum. Guests can identify the local trees and plants along the
way and learn about all the local uses for diverse tree and plant life
in the arboretum.
Credit: Peacefmonline.com
