Workshop on social safeguards in FLEGT/VPA process in Accra, Ghana
ioi-workshopThe EU FLEGT Action Programme aims to combat illegal logging and its associated trade. Ghana was the first country to formulate a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU for contributing to the FLEGT objectives. It is envisaged that improved legal timber trade will also stimulate good governance and poverty alleviation. However, such co-benefits are not automatic. For instance, the law is often incompatible with small-scale forest activities, and these social practices are then considered illegal. The question of how best to integrate legality and livelihood concerns in timber production forms the basis of the research project, ‘Illegal or Incompatible? (IoI): Managing the consequences of timber legality standards on local livelihoods.’ The IoI project assesses how the implementation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between Ghana and the European Union (EU) will impact on the livelihoods of forest dependent people, and searches for governance mechanisms to mitigate any adverse impacts.
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Communication Training For Undergraduate Students

communication_trainingAs part of TBI Ghana’s effort to build adequate national human capacity for the generation and use of information on forestry in Ghana, the programme reserves a small budget to support the fieldwork of undergraduate students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The goal is to improve the quality of undergraduate research in Natural Resources Management; nonetheless, where necessary the support is used to fill gaps in the programme’s research agenda. In 2009, twenty-four (24) students benefited from the facility. These were essentially students in their final year of undergraduate and graduate studies.

In November 2009, TBI Ghana held communication training for the students to whet their communication skills in scientific writing and reporting. In a participatory approach, the training focused on such topics as presentation skills, report writing, proposal writing and referencing styles (citation). Mr. K.S. Nketiah, Programme Director and Mr. Bossman Owusu, Communication Officer facilitated the training.
 
TBI Ghana/Renarsa Seminar Instituted

seminar_studentsTBI Ghana has instituted periodic seminars in collaboration with Renewable Natural Resources Students’ Association (RENARSA) of the Kwame Nkrumah University and Science and Technology (KNUST) with the approval of the Faculty.  At least one seminar is planned for each academic semester. The maiden seminar was held on November 4, 2009 at the Lecture Theater of the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resource, KNUST. Over 300 students and teachers participated.

This arrangement is to fill information gaps in the field of Natural Resource Management (NRM). NRM students in higher learning institutions in Ghana often lack relevant and/or up-to-date information.  This emanates partly from poor teacher-student ratio, low teacher motivation and curricula which have not been updated to meet new demands imposed by changing emphasis in forestry practice. TBI Ghana has the capacity to alleviate these problems.
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