Working Group On Forest Certification Ghana

Since the past four decades, there has been a growing concern worldwide about deforestation and biodiversity loss in the tropical forests. There was pressure from international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Governments and Industries to halt deforestation.

Consequently, the idea of forest certification came into being in the 1990’s to help protect forests from destructive logging practices. Forest Certification is to serve as a means of testifying to consumers that a forest product originates from a well managed forest.

Ghana has adopted forest certification to ensure that the forests are managed well. The Working Group in charge for promoting forest certification in Ghana has received accreditation from Forest Stewardship Council, the world’s leading certification scheme. T

he Ghana Forest Management Certification Standard (GFMCS) is also under review for FSC accreditation. Forest Certification is a technical process; this simple guide is intended to simplify forest certification for easier understanding of all persons who have interest in the forest and its management in Ghana.

This simple guide would be very useful for communities, NGOs, forest workers, timber companies, plantation developers and the general public to acquire basic knowledge about forest certification.