By Edmund Smith-Asante, DODOWA
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| Mr Samuel Mawutor |
Ghana's
Wildlife and Forestry sector is currently governed by 27 different laws which
makes for uneasy referencing, the Co-ordinator of Forest Watch, a coalition of
non-governmental organisations working to improve forest governance, Mr Samuel
Mawutor, has stated.
In
an exclusive interview during a three-day training workshop for journalists on
good forest governance at Dodowa a fortnight ago, Mr Mawutor said the numerous
pieces of legislation made it difficult to prosecute people for forest
violations because they were scattered.
The
training was on “Exploring media entry points for Ghana’s FLEGT/VPA process”
and was organised by Civic Response, a non-governmental organisation with
support from the EU and UKAID among other agencies.
Old laws
Mr
Mawutor said some of the laws were dated as far back as 1892 and 1927,
explaining that the numerous laws, some of which speak to the same issues, were
as a result of the ad hoc ways that were adopted to fix problems.
He,
therefore, asked for a speedy clean-up and consolidation of the laws on
Wildlife and Forestry, which should be initiated by the Ministry of Lands and Natural
Resources and given to the Attorney General to finalise for civil consultation.
“When
we talk about consolidation, we mean that all these laws need to be brought
together and fit in a certain nice way to make meaning,” he explained.
The
Forest Watch Co-ordinator gave an example of how seven principles of defining
legal timber had been teased from all the laws.
These,
he enumerated as the source of timber, the allocation process, the harvesting
procedure, transportation, processing, how it is traded and fiscal obligations.
“One
of the things civil society wants to see is that the greater benefits of
naturally occurring trees are given to the farmers who nurture them rather than
the current situation where if any benefit comes it goes into the consolidated
fund,” he stated.
Ghana logging out of
sustainability
Mr
Mawutor also expressed concern that at Ghana’s current rate of logging, in no
time there would be no more trees to be felled in Ghana’s forests.
He
said although the annual allowable cuts (AAC) of trees was one million cubic
metres from both forest and off-reserve areas, currently, 3.5 million cubic
metres were being felled according to official estimates, adding that 84 per
cent of the logs on the domestic market were illegal.
Stating
that the AAC was set in 1994, he remarked, “So we are saying that between 1994
and now the forest condition hasn’t changed, it has remained constant, and
therefore we can be logging at one million cubic metres a year?
He
said logging was now being done unsustainably, because even the one million a
year estimate had been exceeded by 2.5 million, which means that in 10 years,
35 million (cubic metres) are felled, instead of the projected 10 million m3
during the same period.
“There
is no way we can still maintain that sustainable level without reviewing the
annual allowable cuts,” he said.
According
to Mr Mawutor, legal timber means it was from sawn mills which had the
requisite licences to fell the trees and for now the only wood products that
could be labelled as legal are the plywood.
Saying
the country was institutionalising corruption, he explained that “if a chainsaw
cuts a tree in the bush, it is illegal. If we see it on the road, it is
illegal, immediately it enters the market, it is not illegal.”
He
said although there were efforts to address the illegality, they were a long
shot away.
The
Forest Watch Co-ordinator said the illegality was not only being promoted by
chainsaw operators, but also timer contractors who did ‘voodoo’ tree felling,
where logs illegally felled were under-declared.
Writer’s email: Edmund.Asante@graphic.com.gh
QUOTE
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