Edward Akufo Quist-Arcton

Edward Akufo Quist-Arcton was a Ghanaian forester and civil servant. He was the Chief Conservator of Forests from 1961 to 1962 and the Principal Secretary to the Ghanaian Ministry of Agriculture from 1962 to 1964. He was the first Ghanaian to be appointed Chief Conservator of Forests.

Early life and education Quist-Arcton was born on 19 September 1923 in Accra, Ghana (then Gold Coast). He was educated at Accra Academy where he was head boy for the 1942 batch of students, and thereafter attended Achimota College.

Career Quist-Arcton joined the Gold Coast Forest Service in 1946 as a probationer. As the Senior Assistant Conservator, he was responsible for the Forestry Training School for Rangers and also worked at District level for two years. This portfolio encompassed Agricultural Extension, Produce Inspection, Agricultural Education, Land Planning, the Volta River Scheme, Fisheries, Agricultural Resettlement and Farm Mechanisation, Agricultural Statistics, the Cocoa Division, and Statutory Bodies such as; Marketing Boards, and Co-operatives. He attended the United Nations or FAO conferences in Rome in 1959, Nigeria in 1960, New York in 1963, and Washington in 1963. He also established Land Reclamation and Irrigation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, taking special interest in Forest Headwaters Reservation and Watershed Management.

Quist-Arcton served as the chairman of the Ghana Science Association from 1961 to 1962, and on the Governing Council of the Commonwealth Forestry Association for three years.

After exiting public service in Ghana, Quiet-Arcton gained employment at the Forestry division of the F. A. O. in Rome. After working two years in Rome, working in the Field Operations Unit attached to the Director's office, he was made Regional Officer for the Eastern Zone of Africa, stationed in Nairobi, Kenya. He oversaw F.A.O. forestry affairs in Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Réunion, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Personal life Quist-Arcton was married with four children.