Accra, July 28, GNA - Stakeholders at a National Forest Forum, have called on government to demonstrate strong political will to combat illegal forest operations to protect the country’s forest resources.
They said political interferences in illegal forestry issues, including chainsaw lumbering and logging, were hampering the country’s efforts to clamp down on the perpetrators.
The Forum was organised by the Friends of the Earth-Ghana (FoE-Ghana), in partnership with the Rainforest Foundation-UK, to provide a neutral platform for the stakeholders to discuss ways of ensuring effective law enforcement and political will as well as minimising political interferences to address illegal forest operations.
The Forum was on the theme: “Ensuring law enforcement, improving political will and minimising political interferences to address illegal forest operations.”
The participants called for policy and legal reforms in the wood sourcing and trade in the domestic market to enhance trade in legal wood.
In a communique issued on behalf of the Director of the FoE-Ghana, by Mr Enoch Gyamfi Ampadu, the more than 60 personnel who represented key stakeholders in the forestry sector, asked security agencies to team up and rigorously sanction perpetrators.
They said a collective effort by the Judiciary, the Attorney Generals department, State prosecutors, Police Service and Forest managers would tighten security measures in the forest sector.
They also urged traditional rulers, especially paramount chiefs who administered Social Responsibility Agreements to ensure that agreements were well defined to enhance negotiation and their fulfilment in a more transparent manner.
The stakeholders called on the staff of the Forestry Commission to adhere to their professional ethics in pursuance of their duties so as to minimise political interference in forest administration.
“The staff must be resolute and resolve to act and perform duties with professional standards,” the communique said.
It called for mentorship programmes should be intensified to coach the staff adequately for the job.
It called for a multi-sectoral and an inter-agency approach to improve law enforcement and urged the Forestry Commission, Minerals Commission and the Ghana Cocoa Board to join efforts to fight against illegal mining and illegal cocoa farms established in the forest reserves.
The communique called for increased public awareness on forest laws, legislations and climate change for the public and other stakeholders including the media, the judiciary and religious entities to improve forest for law enforcement.
The project seeks to build the capacity of forest communities to monitor, detect and report illegal forest operations in real time through the application of mobile phone technology.
This would help generate data that would contribute to decision-making processes on forest resource management, improve detection, reporting and verification of forest infractions, which would propel the efforts of the Forestry Commission to clamp down on illegal forest operations.
The participants were from the Forestry Commission, Minerals Commission, National Forest Forum, Civil Society Organisations and the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Timber Millers Organisation, Timber and Wood Trade Associations.
Others were the Judiciary Council, the media, Ghana Cocoa Board, Forest Fringe Communities, Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
"NATIONAL FOREST STAKEHOLDERS FORUM
JOINT COMMUNIQUE BY PARTICIPANTS
Friends of the Earth-Ghana (FoE-Ghana), in partnership with Rainforest Foundation-UK (RFUK) has organized a National Forest Stakeholders’ Forum(6th July, 2017) in Accra. The purpose of the forum was to provide a neutral platform to discuss ways of ensuring effective law enforcement and political will as well as minimizing political interferences in order to address illegal forest operations in Ghana
The theme of the forum was “Ensuring law enforcement, improving political will and minimizing political interferences to address illegal forest operations” in Ghana. The forum was attended by about 60 forest sector stakeholders, with personnel from the Forestry Commission, Minerals Commission, National Forest Forum, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Ghana Police Service, Ghana Timber Millers Organization (GTMO), Timber and Wood Trade Associations, the Judiciary Council, the Media, Ghana Cocoa Board, Forest Fringe Communities, Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands, and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
The forum forms part of implementing activities of an independent forest monitoring project titled “Community Based Real Time Forest Monitoring Project” funded by Department for International Development (DFID). The project seeks to build the capacity of forest communities to monitor, detect and report illegal forest operations in real time through the application of mobile phone technology. The application of the technology is to enable community members to collect data on the type and location of illegal forest operations as and when they happen and transmit the data to a dedicated platform on a timely manner. The purpose is to generate data that will contribute to decision-making processes on forest resource management, improve detection, reporting and verification of forest infractions. It is also to help the Forestry Commission to take immediate corrective actions on the illegal forest operations in identified risk areas, and thus, contribute to strengthening law enforcement, transparency and accountability. Such a technology would contribute to the efforts meant to control, minimize illegal forest operations and serve a key independent forest monitoring and governance tool.
The forum had presentations on issues such as ; i) emerging illegal forest operations at the district level, ii) Governance challenges in addressing illegal forest operations, iii) Role of law enforcement in addressing illegal forest operations, iv) Addressing inter-agency gaps in dealing with illegal forest operations and v) Prospects of Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) for legal wood trade.
In view of the issues raised and discussed, the participant made the following recommendations for the immediate attention and action by the Government, Forestry Commission and other forest sector stakeholders:
1. In order to improve forest law enforcement, there should be increased public awareness on forest laws and legislations and climate change for the general public, the media, the judiciary, religious entities and other stakeholders. There should also be easy access of the laws to the general public as a means of improving public knowledge on these laws. This could be done through public discussion on radio, media advocacy, press releases, and also through the sharing of the laws on websites of government institutions such as the Forestry Commission, Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, Minerals Commission, etc.
2. To minimize political interference in forest administration, the Forestry Commission staff should be resolute, and should resolve to act and perform duties with professional standards and ethics, and as well work in accordance with the laws and administrative procedures. Mentorship programmes among the forestry staff should be promoted to ensure that the new generation of forest managers will be committed to ensuring sustainable management of the forest resources.
3. The government must demonstrate political will in the fight against illegal forest operations just as have been exhibited in the illegal mining case. There should minimum political interferences in dealing with illegal forest operations such as chainsaw lumbering and logging, conversion of forest in to agriculture lands such as cocoa farms and illegal mining in the forest reserves. Also politicians, traditional authorities, and other persons in high places should not use their offices to interfere with the forest law enforcement processes that are initiated by forest sector officers, law enforcement agencies and other related institutions.
4. There should be a multi-sectoral and an inter-agency approach to improve law enforcement and dealing with illegal forest operations. The Forestry Commission, Minerals Commission and the Ghana Cocoa Board could team up to monitor illegal mining and illegal cocoa farms established in the forest reserves.
5. To bridge the gap between the Judiciary, the Attorney Generals department, State prosecutors, Police Service and Forest managers, there should be a sustained effort for these agencies to consult with each other to facilitate prosecution process of forest offenders. The Forestry Commission could initiate actions to engage these agencies at the district and national levels to ensure effective collaboration to ensure effective prosecution of offenders. There should be sustained programmes to train the state prosecutors on the forest laws and regulations to ensure that the right charges are preferred against forest offenders. The trained forest prosecutors should also collaborate with the Ghana Police in prosecuting offenders.
6. The involvement of the traditional rulers (especially the paramount Chiefs) in the administration of the Social Responsibility Agreements (SRA) should be well defined to regulate their role in the negotiation and fulfilment of SRA. There should be transparency and accountability in the agreement and execution processes.
7. As means of strengthening the forest sector law enforcement, the Forestry Commission could channel some of its funds the Police Service to support capacity building and resource them to carry out proper investigation and evidence gathering into illegal forest operations to ensure effective prosecution of offenders.
8. There should be improved transparency and sharing of information within and among forest sector stakeholders and the general public. There should also be major policy and legal reforms in the wood sourcing and trade in the domestic market to enhance trade in legal wood.
It is expected that these recommendations and actions points will be duly considered and implemented to contribute positively to minimizing illegal forest operations across the country."
SIGNED
Enoch Gyamfi Ampadu
For: Director, Friends of the Earth-Ghana.
27/07/2017
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