Stakeholders gain faith in Ghana’s forestry sector

Stakeholders gain faith in Ghana’s forestry sector

Ghana - 21 March, 2016

There is hope for Ghana’s forestry sector after several years and endless efforts of battling illegal chainsaw milling and its associated international and local trade which had the potential to mar Ghana’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union under the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. This hope was given at a closeout workshop of the EU funded project ‘Supporting the integration of legal and legitimate domestic timber markets into Voluntary Partnership Agreements’ held at the Coconut Regency Hotel – Accra on 9th March 2016.

The project after, five years of successful implementation developed a policy for the supply of legal lumber to the domestic market in consultation with stakeholders and has piloted the Artisanal milling concept under the policy. The concept is an alternative to illegal chainsaw milling and currently eight groups made up of 277 former illegal chainsaw operators have been registered under the concept. Again, some project communities in the Assin Foso, Begoro and Juaso forest districts have been supported to reforest degraded portions of the Supong, Wurobong and Dome River forest reserves respectively. At the end of the project, 166 ha of degraded forest (56% of allocated portion) have been planted with indigenous and exotic tree species. In realising the potential and benefits of multi-stakeholder dialogue (MSD), the main strategy used by the project, the project has embedded multi-stakeholder engagements within the sector through the institutionalisation of the MSD platform with a legitimate national platform; National Forest Forum-Ghana.

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The workshop which was attended by over 70 participants from 40 stakeholder groups, including a member of the EU head of delegation to Ghana, Herve Delso, were full of praise for the project’s achievements especially in tackling illegal chainsaw milling in the light of VPA implementation. The Forestry Commission of Ghana pledged their support in sustaining the plantation programme and moving the artisanal milling concept forward. In a speech by the Technical Director for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the ministry pledged its commitment to implement the recommendations and lessons learnt from the project. The ministry also applauded TBI Ghana and partners for their collaboration with the sector ministry to address topical forestry issues such as illegal chainsaw milling and together with the director of TBI Ghana showed their appreciation to the EU for their financial support to the sector.