Illegal logging of timber in developing countries and its related international trade have been reckoned as key contributors to environmental damage. This elicits concerns for responsible production, trading and consumption of timber.  The EU’s response to illegal logging is the adoption of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan in 2003 to facilitate trade in legal timber and to improve forest governance. To put FLEGT into effect, Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are being developed. Under the VPA, only legal timber and timber products will be permitted into the European Community.

In November 2009 Ghana was the first country to have signed and ratified a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU on legal timber exports, after a negotiation process that started in 2006.  It is expected that the first FLEGT licenses from Ghana will be issued by the end of 2010.

With a mission to make distinctive scientific inputs into sustainable forest management in Ghana, TBI Ghana has been actively involved in the VPA process in a variety of ways. Partnering with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), TBI Ghana assessed the potential social, economic and environmental impacts of key options discussed at the VPA negotiations, and suggested possible modifications. The findings have assisted the preparatory work of the VPA Steering Committee (VPA SC) for Ghana’s VPA negotiation with the EU.

TBI Ghana was nominated as one of two representatives of civil society groups on theVPA SC to facilitate informed debate and ensuring an equitable participation of civil society in the VPA negotiations. Working together with other civil society organisations, TBI Ghana engaged forest dependent communities in awareness creation and sensitization.. This platform served to inform communities about the VPA intervention, to elicit feedback and to build their capacity for engaging in VPA discussions.

Benefits and impacts envisaged under the VPA programme in Ghana include addressing weaknesses in the forest sector regulatory environment, bringing timber harvesting in line with legal and administrative limits and securing revenue flows from the resource. Illegal chainsaw milling in Ghana robs the country of vast amount of development capital, fuels conflicts, and distorts market prices for timber, but sustains thousands of rural families. Though banned since 1998, chainsaw milling continues to supply over 80% of lumber to the domestic market. Without ensuring legal and sustainable domestic timber supply, it may be almost impossible to benefit from the VPA as envisaged. TBI Ghana and partners supported the transition to legal supply onto the domestic market by leading a Working Group in the VPA SC that examined the challenges of supplying legal timber to the domestic market, contributing to the Government of Ghana’s negotiating position. This was followed by the project "Developing alternatives for illegal chainsaw lumbering through multi-stakeholder dialogue (MSD) in Ghana and Guyana". The MSD process is to design innovative policy options to address the legal timber supply for the domestic market without compromising rural livelihoods and the environmental health of Ghana’s forests. So far, stakeholders have formulated initial recommendations to guide these discussions for addressing the chainsaw problem in the country. (See www.chainsawmilling.org for details)

The potential effects of VPA implementation on local livelihoods are further elaborated in the research project – “Illegal or Incompatible: Managing the consequences of timber legality standards on local livelihoods”. TBI Ghana and partners seek to provide better understanding of these consequences as well as inputs for managing them. In October 2009 TBI Ghana organised a workshop to facilitate information exchange and dialogue among forest stakeholders resulting in four key messages directed at policy makers both in Ghana and the EU. (See Ghana latest news, for details). The workshop identified a research and development agenda for managing the consequences of timber legality standards on local livelihoods.

Finally, TBI Ghana witnessed the signing of Ghana’s VPA with the EU in Brussels.

TBI Ghana remains committed to provide guidance for policy-makers, resource managers and researchers by supporting debate about and review of policies related to VPA in Ghana and generating knowledge on options for improving forest-dependent livelihoods. During the implementation VPA, TBI Ghana will continue to engage with other actors and support dialogue among multiple forest stakeholders to harness viewpoints for sustainable forest management and development in Ghana.