PARTNERSHIP HAS POTENTIAL TO PROTECT TIMBER RESOURCES (PAGE 67, OCT 11, 2010)

THE President of the Ghana Institute of Foresters (GIF), Dr K. Asamoah Adam, has observed that the partnership agreement between Ghana and European Union to stop illegal logging, has the potential to be one of the effective tools to protect the timber resources of the country.
The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) is a legally binding agreement between the European Union and partner countries to stop illegal logging.
Dr Adam, has therefore, stressed the need for timber operators to fully understand the agreement to enable them to contribute to its successful implementation.
He pointed out that Article 16 of the VPA seeks the active involvement of all stakeholders in the timber industry in the implementation of the agreement.
Dr Adam made the observation at a day’s workshop on the timber industry/VPA awareness creation and implementation for timber operators in Takoradi.
The workshop was organised by the Ghana Timber Association (GTA) and the Ghana Timber Millers’ Organisation (GTMO) to educate their members on the Voluntary Partnership Agreement which is scheduled for implementation in the country, in December this year.
The VPA is a bilateral agreement between the European Union (EU) and wood exporting countries, aimed at improving forest governance and ensuring that the wood importer to the EU market has complied with the legal requirements of the partner country.
Although there is no obligation for any country to enter into a VPA, once agreed upon, they are legally binding on both parties, committing them to trading in wood products that can be verified as legal.
Dr Adam stated that unsustainable logging, including execessive cutting, illegal logging, inefficient logging and milling had led to a high rate of forest destruction, culminating in environmental degradation and rural poverty.
He said there had been global actions for the promotion of sustainable forest management.
That, he said, included the ecosystem approach that focused on resource as a whole and not components of the ecosystem.
Dr Adam, who is also a board member of the Forestry Commission said it was one of the objectives of the VPA to ensure that all timber from partner countries had been verified as fully legally compliant.
He added that it would also ensure good governance and transparency as well as policy and legal reforms to better capture revenue and rents.
He said there would be public and private procurement policies that recognised efforts to ensure supply of legally harvested forest products.
Dr Adam added that there would be promotion of Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT)-licensed products on the European timber market.
He also indicated that there would be a prolonged life span of forest resources as a result of the reduction in illegal logging.
The acting Director of the Timber Validation Department of the Forestry Commission, Mr Chris Beeko, further explained that the VPA was a new system of measuring and reporting compliance to the legal standard or the existing law.
He said it was an improved system of collecting, collating and reconciling transaction data along the entire process chain, and also a history of change in ownership and custody of export consignments.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Timber Millers’ Organisation, Mr E.E.Acquah-Moses, urged the timber operators to regard the VPA as an effort towards sustainable forest management in the country.