Wednesday 18 September 2013
Global Environmental Governance with particular emphasis on the Forest sector : Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...? Discus...
Global Environmental Governance with particular emphasis on the Forest sector : Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...? Discus...: I continue the discussion of the challenges of the Ghana FLEGT VPA process and why I believe there is need for urgent and coherent action by...
Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...? Discussion of challenges continues
I continue the discussion of the challenges of the Ghana FLEGT VPA process and why I believe there is need for urgent and coherent action by all stakeholders to steer the VPA on the path to deliver some real gains in forest governance. Today I will focus on the issue of non-conversion of logging leases to Timber Utilization Contracts according to the requirement of the Timber Resources Management
2.3 Non-conversion
of “old” leases to Timber Utilization Contracts (TUCs)
2.3 Non-conversion
of “old” leases to Timber Utilization Contracts (TUCs)
The coming into force of the Timber Management Act
(Act 547, 1998) and Amendment Act (Act 617, 2002) obliged the
government to convert all old leases[1] (pre
1997) which were granted timber companies into the new permit type (i.e. TUC). An
important reason for the introduction of the law was to block all the leakages
of revenue losses to government and forest stakeholders from exploitation of
timber resources and also to ensure the right market price are paid for timber.
Ghana’s legality matrix recognizes the TUC and not the leases as a legal permit
type for harvest of timber for domestic and international trade. The VPA thus
enforces an obligation on government to convert all these leases into TUC and
for the right timber rent fees to be charged. Since the coming into force of
the law, this conversion has not been done because of struggles between the
industry and government on technicalities and alleged illegal legitimacy (or
locus) of government to do so. So far the government has been weak in dealing
with this challenge even upon persistent pressure from CSOs[2]. A handful
of TUCs have actually been granted by the Forestry Commission (62 out of over
800)[3].
Majority of permits are salvage permits, TUPs, leases and special permits. This
is maintaining the status-quo and ensuring that poor forest communities are
subsidizing the operations of timber companies. This means that by
continuing to operate these permits, Ghana will flood the market with timber
that cannot be given a FLEGT license and this will cause a delay in the date of
issuing FLEGT licensed timber to Europe and other markets. This will not only have an impact on the
domestic market but also questions Ghana’s political commitment to implementing
the VPA negotiated with the EU in 2008.
[1] Leases were another permit type but this was outlawed by the Timber
Resources Management Regulation, 2003. The leases were not granted upon
competitive bidding processes. Also the TUC had different regimes for revenue
collection to ensure that government maximizes its economic benefit from the
exploitation of the resource
[2] CSOs also raised the issue at the 4th JMRM
of the VPA held from 13th -16th March, 2012. Available at
the Forestry Commission website, www.fcghana.org.
This is in addition to the letters sent to the FC and MLNR by FWG to protest
the administrative abuse of the salvage permits.
[3] The
information is sourced from Global Witness analysis of official Ghana logging
permits lists which shows that three quarters of Ghana’s logging permits could
break Europe’s new timber law. It is available at http://www.globalwitness.org/ghanapermits
Friday 13 September 2013
Global Environmental Governance with particular emphasis on the Forest sector : "Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...Challen...
"Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...Challen...: Today I continue with my series on the paper: Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt and failing to achieve improvement in forest governance
"Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...Challenge of administrative abuse of permits regime"
Today I continue with my series on the paper: Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt and failing to achieve improvement in forest governance? I will tackle the challenge of administrative abuse of the permits regime and its consequences and why all stakeholders especially government needs to do more to achieve improvements by enforcing the VPA requirements.
2.2 Administrative abuse of timber
permits regime
Ghana’s
timber permit regime is still faced with irregularities and the underlying
challenge of corruption and abuse of the system has worsened since the VPA was
ratified. Several studies and statements from CSOs have pointed to this
challenge but authorities (Forestry Commission and its parent Ministry) have
remained adamant to not only admit the problem but also fail to find lasting
solutions that address them. An example
of the challenge facing the permits regime is the administrative abuse of
salvage permits[1]. In
2010, Forest Watch Ghana communicated to the Ministry of Lands and Natural
Resource and Parliament’s Select Committee on Lands and Forestry on alleged cases
of abuse of the timber permits regime resulting from analysis of the process of
awarding the permits and the content of over 100 salvage permits that had been
issued between 2009 and 2010. These concerns were also raised during the Joint
Monitoring and Review Mechanism (JMRM)[2] of the
VPA. The analysis showed that in the over 100 salvage permits issued, an
average of 130 trees were allocated per permit. Several permits were granted
for harvesting more 300 trees and at least one permit had been issued for an
excess of 1000 trees. In total the number of trees according to the FC that needed salvage in 2009
and 2010 was in excess of 15, 800. It is intriguing to note that the
Forestry Commission in contrast to its own practice however had held Timber
Utilization Contracts (TUC)[3] auction
for lots as small as 40 trees in the past. In a recent report published by
Global Witness[4],
there has been a sharp increase in salvage permits issued since 2010. The
number of salvage permits issued in 2009 and 2010 had increased by about 360%
(from 120 to 430)[5]
compared to the number issued between 2011 and 2012. There are a number of
legal difficulties that arise from the abuse of the salvage permits. First of
all, these
permits are awarded in contravention of the Timber Resources Management Act (1997),
Act 547 and its amendments. Section 9 of the Timber Resources Management Regulations, 2003 (LI 1649)
says that timber rights can only be allocated by auction involving
pre-qualified bidders. As far as records available to CSOs suggests, none of
these were auctioned (or at least not publicly). Secondly, Article 268 of
Ghana’s Constitution requires parliamentary ratification of all grants of
natural resource rights. CSOs maintain that salvage permits as a category of
permits needs parliamentary ratification. This allows parliament to verify that
due process has been followed. None of these salvaging permits received
parliamentary ratification. In recent times when the issue had been put forward
to the Forestry Commission, their response has been that they have acted within
their legal remit citing provisions in the 1992 Constitution article 269 (2)
which states “parliament may, by
resolution supported by votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of
parliament, exempt from the provisions of clause (1) of this article any
particular class of transactions, contract or undertakings”. There is no
evidence that such a waiver has been provided by parliament. The Forestry
Commission must therefore come clean and explain to the public the rate of
increase in issuance of salvage permits in recent years (2009 to 2012). There
are critical questions that need answers. What processes did the Forestry
Commission go through to determine that so many trees needed salvage? In each
case what assessments were carried out? Who was consulted? What was District
Assembly’s involvement? What other alternatives were considered? How is all of
this documented? With this challenge persisting, Ghana’s timber carries
a high risk for EU importers. In light of the EUTR, such importers should be
worried. The FC’s blatant abuse of the salvage permits upon persistent pressure
from CSOs will not only undermine the credibility of Ghana’s timber exports to
the EU, undermine the credibility of the Ghana-EU VPA and pose a high risk to
EU buyers but is also a decoy to evade the transparency and competitive requirements
of the law[6].
[1] Section 38 (1) of the Timber Resource Management Regulations, 1998 (LI
1649) as amended allows the FC to issue salvaging permits “... for the salvage
of trees from an area of land undergoing development such as road
construction, expansion of human settlement or cultivation of farms (emphasis
added)”. This is contained in FWG’s media statement challenging the
administrative abuse of salvage permits. In law, there is no exact number trees
to be awarded for salvage, however in practice if the number is reasonably high
(more than 40 by the FC’s own standards), it is prudent to rather allocate the
rights to harvest the timber through a TUC than a salvage permit to allow for
the maximum revenue to be derived from the operation.
[2] The JMRM is made up of representatives of the EU and the Government of Ghana
responsible for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the VPA. The
concerns raised are recorded in the Aide Memoir of the JMRM held from the 4-6
July, 2011 and available at the FC website at www.fcghana.org
[3] TUC is the only type of permits allowed for medium to large scale timber
companies to harvest timber and process for trade. Permits are awarded through
competitive bidding according to the Timber Resources Management Regulation
(2003) and are expected to bring in the maximum revenue possible to government
in the exploitation of timber resources.
[4] Records on permits issued between 2009 to 2012 obtained by GW from the
Forestry Commission was used in analysis and subsequent report on abuse of
permits system in Ghana; available on http://www.globalwitness.org/ghanapermits
[5] Data on permits issued by government that was provided to GW by the
Forestry Commission, contained information on all types of permits including
salvage permits issued from 2009 to 2012. The analysis is also based on data
sourced by FWG in 2011 which showed the number of salvage permits issued by
Forestry Commission in 2009 and 2010.
Friday 6 September 2013
Global Environmental Governance with particular emphasis on the Forest sector : Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...? Challe...
Global Environmental Governance with particular emphasis on the Forest sector : Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...? Challe...: Continuing from earlier post (in the series) on the paper "Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt and failing to achieve improvem...
Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt...? Challenges of the forest sector
Continuing from earlier post (in the series) on the paper "Is Ghana's FLEGT VPA grinding to a halt and failing to achieve improvements in forest governance?". I delve into the challenges of the forest sector. I will first talk about the challenge of over-exploitation of timber and Chainsaw Milling. My intention here is to point and dwell more on the underlying causes of this challenge and the solutions to address the underlying causes.
2 Challenges of the forest sector
2.1
Overexploitation of timber and
Chainsaw Milling
One of the main challenges of the forest sector is the overexploitation
of forest resources. There is excess installed capacity of the timber
processing mills (5 million m3 installed log processing capacity)[1] compared
to the supply of raw material. Currently Ghana is harvesting timber at
unsustainable levels (both in the on and off-reserve areas). An estimated 4.5
million m3 is extracted annually, which is more than double the
Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) set by the Forestry Commission at 2 million m3.
This problem of overharvesting is closely linked with the Chainsaw Milling (CSM)
issue. According to estimates from recent studies[2], CSM alone
is currently supplying 2.5 million m3 (above the ACC) to both
domestic and international wood market. Majority of lumber found on the various
timber markets scattered across the country (Takoradi, Ofankor, koforidua,
Sokoban wood village, etc) come from Chainsaw Milling operations. There are
several underlying causes for overexploitation of timber and CSM. Unfair
benefit sharing arrangements, lack of clear and secure tenure arrangements for land
and trees, unfair access to the forests especially for communities are some of them.
The domestic timber market policy and the procurement policy have been
discussed by stakeholders for some months now (started in 2012). There is
scepticism among some civil society organizations (CSOs) whether these policies
have the requisite reform approach to halt and reverse the trend of
deforestation or even tackle the problem of CSM heads-on. The objective and approach
of any workable proposal should be the involvement of the Chainsaw operators in
the bidding process for timber permits and regulate their operations. It should
also include strategies to introduce their operations to efficient machinery
like the logosaws and improving benefit sharing between government, farmers and
landowners.
[1] The Annual Allowable Cut (based on sustainable levels) of timber in
Ghana is set at 2 million m3 by the Forestry Commission
[2] The report on Chainsaw milling in Ghana, drivers, contexts and impacts
2010 by Emmanuel Marfo (works with the Forest Research Institute of Ghana,
FORIG) provides information and statistics on the dynamics and impacts of
Chainsaw Milling in Ghana. Most of the statistical data on chainsaw milling and
its impacts were source from the publication.
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