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WORKING GROUP (WG) on Forest Certification-Ghana, a multi-stakeholder Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) dedicated to the promotion of sustainable forest management through certification in Ghana last week organized a one day media sensitization workshop on Forest Certification and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Accra.
The workshop was aimed at giving the Ghanaian media clearer understanding of most issues affecting forest certification and its sustainability and management, impact and policy implications, environment and international agreement on SFM.
In a presentation by Dr. Ernest Asare Abeney, Director of the WG, titled “Sustainable Forest Management and the future of Ghana’s Forests” defined SFM by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as, the stewardship and use of forests and forest land in a way and at a rate that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and other potentials to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.
Giving some statistics on Ghana’s forest resource base, said the country was endowed with 1.6 million hectares in the 1990s, has been a drastic decline between 1.2 million and 800,000 hectares. “This is not a good sign for a country that is really down at heart in giving good maintenance to its forest for its citizens and future generations.” He therefore called for an efficient management of our forests to reduce the risks and impacts of other negative human approach such as bush fires and airborne pollution among others.
“SFM implies deliberate human intervention in policy formulation, legislation and management to safeguard the productive and protective functions of the forest” said Dr. Abeney
In a second presentation on “ Forest Certification and Sustainable Forest Management : A tool for Sustainable Forest Management, Mr. Joseph William Osei, a Forestry Economist and Forest Certification Auditor , defined forest certification to be an independent process whereby an independent certification body assesses whether or not forest management conforms to a given standard.
“Presently the National Working Group is fully accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), while an updated Ghana Forest Management Standard is currently being studied for accreditation by the FSC “. There is also an on-going high profile voluntary forest certification projects involving big timber companies as well as medium and small timber companies.
Mr. Osei said improvement in forest management requires internal audits and conditions and recommendations from external assessments. In this vain, over 30 forest auditors and local communities have been sensitized on their rights and obligations under forest management, resulting in the use of local communities in deriving more benefits from Social Responsibility Agreements (SRA).
Giving an overview of the Ghana Forest Certification Management standard, he said in 2000, Ghana attained its final version of the Ghana Forest Certification Management standard, before then it had moved from various voluntary forest certification process which begun in 1996, followed by a National on Forest Certification (NCFC) was established to pursue the certification process and a Technical Working Group tasked to develop options for certification in line with international standards. This the final launch of the Management Certification System project in 1997.
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