Summary
Even though forests remain important in the socio-economic
sectors of Ghana, they are declining at an alarming rate (approximately 135,
000 ha annually)[1].
As a result their contribution of providing raw materials, employment, income
and support for rural livelihoods is under threat. In 2009, Ghana ratified a
Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union (EU) to halt
deforestation and improve governance in the forest sector by regulating the
trade in timber and timber products into the EU market. According to the VPA,
Ghana is expected to reform the policy and legislative framework of the forest
sector to improve governance. Ghana is also expected to install a Legality
Assurance System (LAS) to monitor and verify the legality of processed timber
for domestic and international markets. Five years since the VPA was ratified, the
governance challenges facing the forestry sector persists and in some cases it
has even worsened. Overexploitation of timber resources is continuing at
alarming rates fuelled in part by the Chainsaw Milling (CSM). There is still
unclear and unfair access and benefit sharing of naturally occurring trees on
farmlands. Government’s abuse of the permits regime (especially salvage
permits) is on the rise. Concession leases have not been converted to Timber
Utilization Contracts (TUCs) as mandated by law and the VPA. There is
inadequate accountability, transparency and disclosure of information on
forestry operations. Stumpage fees have
not been revised since 2004 as stipulated by law[2]
resulting in millions of US dollars loss in revenue and high social cost in
timber exploitation. And finally, Civil
Society Organizations (CSOs) dynamics have changed resulting in decreased momentum
and involvement in the implementation phase of the VPA. These challenges
clearly threaten the ability of the VPA to live up to the expectation of
improving forest governance in the sector, halting trade in illegal timber and
improving sustainable forest management.
There is urgency for all stakeholders to work towards
achieving the objectives of the VPA. Government should stop the rhetoric and
actually demonstrate commitment to governance reform by reviewing and enforcing
new stumpage fees and convert all leases to TUCs. Parliament should exercise
its oversight responsibility by investigating the administrative abuse of the
permits regime (especially the salvage permits) by government, recommend and
implement corrective measures. CSOs should re-organize and re-strategize to maximize
the effect of their seat at the table and influence the process to ensure
reforms respond to the objectives of the VPA. CSOs need to provide workable and
credible proposals and alternatives on the way forward. They need to hold the
government accountable to all forest stakeholders. The EU and donors of the
forestry sector need to put pressure on government to ensure that governance
reforms are implemented. The implementation of governance reforms should
therefore be strictly tied to funding and that release of funding is tied with
achievement of governance reform targets set. A reformed land and tree tenure
regime that fairly and equitably shares the benefits from tree exploitations
and rewards farmers for nurturing trees on their farms should be pursued
vigorously by the government and all actors in the sector.
In conclusion, there
is hope for the Ghana VPA to achieve its objective of ensuring improvements in
transparency, accountability and good governance in the forest sector. However all stakeholders must rise to the
challenge and show the same level of commitment, enthusiasm, optimism and good
will that characterised the negotiation process.
[2] The Timber Resources Management (Amendment) Regulation (2003), LI
1721 provides for timber right holders to pay stumpage fees which “shall be
reviewed to reflect market demand and inventory levels of
timber species”.
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