A boost for new EU Chainsaw project districts

Since 2007, the EU Chainsaw milling project has been implemented in eight forest districts including Goaso and Sunyani in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Juaso and Nkawie in the Ashanti Region, Kade, Oda and Begoro in the Eastern Region and Assin Fosu in the Central Region. The two new districts were added to broaden the frontiers of district-level multi-stakeholder participation in decision making in support of efforts toward finding alternatives to illegal chainsaw milling in Ghana.

Thus, the extension of the project to the forest districts meant setting up new multi-stakeholder platforms and steering committees to support the on-going national discourse for finding sustainable options for supplying legal lumber for the domestic market. To be able to fulfill this function, the EU Chainsaw milling project organized a special training for key actors to shore up their knowledge, skills and general capacity to effectively manage and support the district-level dialogue process.

The training took participants through relevant subjects such as facilitating multi-stakeholder process, dealing with power relations, group management, leadership development and adaptive management. It also provided the requisite technical backstopping on the implementation of the EU Chainsaw milling project in the various districts.