Innovation for improved forest governance in West Africa.
Background
The less inclusiveness and less active involvement of the timber industry in the negotiation and implementation processes of FLEGT VPA in Ghana, Liberia and Cote d’ Ivoire has been recognized as one of the major bottlenecks to the subsequent issuance of FLEGT Licensed Timber in these countries. Consequently, a section of timber industries in these three countries do not fully understand FLEGT requirements and have inadequate capacity to meet legality requirements and thus are apprehensive of the outcome of FLEGT on their businesses.
In addition, although the specific volumes of timber consumed in these three countries are not known, the domestic market of these countries (Ghana, Liberia & Cote d’ Ivoire), especially Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, are estimated to consume substantial volumes. It is even submitted that, domestic timber consumption in these countries could be about 50-60% of the total production. This therefore suggests that, eliminating export of illegal timber (FLEGT License) only solves the problem of illegal logging and trade partially. This project was therefore designed to respond and provide innovative solutions to the issues of inclusiveness and capacity of industry in respect of FLEGT VPA actions in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia.
Achievements
The project took into cognizance the stage of VPA in each country and stimulated dialogue among key stakeholders and actors: government, industry association and players, civil society organizations among others, to exchange ideas of addressing the challenges and trigger actions for sustainable solutions in the long term. Sections of project activities also advocated for the passage of the public procurement policy on timber and timber products in Ghana while providing avenue for cross-jurisdictional exchange learning for Liberia and Cote d’ Ivoire. In addition, the project had activities that sought to promote the availability of legal timber on the domestic market of Ghana.
Specifically, the project embarked on the following activities:
- Conduct capacity building training and information sessions for 60 timber companies on FLEGT, legal timber and gender equity in timber business in Ghana.
- Support 30 small and medium companies to develop and implement internal control processes in Ghana.
- Organize domestic legal timber business-link dialogue between buyers and sellers in Ghana.
- Organize private sector and government dialogue on domestic market issues across Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia.
- Engage with the government and the Media to advocate for the passage of the public procurement policy on timber in Ghana.
- Build capacity of Local Authorities procurement officers on public procurement policy on timber in 4 regions of Ghana.
- Organised a regional dialogue on the lessons learned from the procurement policy in Ghana.
- Organised a lesson learning study tour for various stakeholder groups from Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia.
