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04 September 2018 Ghana
Artisanal timber millers are the key suppliers to Ghana’s domestic timber market. However, they have only limited access to commercial timber from production forests. This access is provided by means of Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUCs). TUCs are granted through a competitive bidding process that puts artisanal millers at a disadvantage. They lack the financial capacity to compete for contracts against the large-scale traditional millers.
04 September 2018 Ghana
For several years, Tropenbos Ghana has lobbied policymakers throughout Ghana to adopt artisanal milling as the preferred method for small and medium-scale milling as an alternative to chainsaw milling, which is banned in the country but still practised. To reinforce these lobbying efforts, Tropenbos Ghana decided to investigate the economic viability of artisanal milling using the Net Present Value (NPV) method.
04 September 2018 DR Congo
TBI has been working to promote and legalise the artisanal milling sector in DR Congo since 2010. This includes supporting artisanal loggers in what was then Province Orientale to organise themselves into legal associations.
04 September 2018 Ghana
In Ghana, timber companies and timber producing communities are obliged to sign Social Responsibility Agreements (SRAs). The agreements are intended to compensate the communities for their contribution to forest resource management. The SRAs also require the timber companies to allocate 5% of their stumpage fees to development projects in the communities. However, a survey conducted by Tropenbos Ghana in 39 timber producing communities in the Western and Brong-Ahafo regions revealed that very few signed SRAs are being implemented.
04 September 2018 Indonesia
In 2017, Tropenbos Indonesia initiated a partnership between the village of Laman Satong in West Kalimantan and the oil palm company PT Kayong Agro Lestari, which owns the nearby oil palm plantation.
04 September 2018 Colombia
For more than two decades, Tropenbos Colombia has dedicated itself to documenting local knowledge through supporting research conducted by indigenous communities in the mid-Caquetá region of Colombia. Indigenous peoples’ knowledge of flora and fauna species and their ecological relationships is exceptionally detailed since it is rooted in their close, long-time interaction with their habitat.