Ghana’s Initiatives to Tackle Illegal Chainsaw Milling

(The Domestic Market Lumber Supply Reform)

Content of Presentation• Evolution of the Chainsaw Policy (Genesis, Abused,

Banned)

• Difficulty with Enforcement

• The Current Domestic Market Issues

• Why is it important to address the Domestic Market

Issues

• Evolution of Artisanal Milling Concept (Domestic Market

Reform)

• Success and Challenges

• Way forward

Evolution of the Chainsaw Policy• CSM activities was introduced in the 1960s replacing the

manual sawing

• CSM became widespread in the early 1980s (recognition as important economic activity)

• Government regulation CSM activities in 1991 (LI 1518)

• The decentralization of CSM activities led the indiscriminate felling and abuse of permit (depletion of forest resources and environmental degradation)

Policy response

• Interim felling procedures of 1995

• The timber task forces

• The banned on CSM activities in 1998 (LI 1649)

Difficulty with Enforcement

• Corruption and weak institutional framework• Political interference and lack of political will (limiting the

capacity of forestry officials to fully enforce the law)• Demand for lumber locally• Unemployment issues

The Current Domestic Market Issues

• High incidence of illegal CSM. Over 84% of local lumber supply with an estimated volume of 497,000m³ and market value of 279 million GHC (200 million USD)

• Loss of revenue to the state (about 18 million USD stumpage revenue)

• Loss of useful man hours by FC staff, law enforcement agency personnel in patrolling, arresting and persecuting chainsaw lumber operators.

The Current Domestic Market Issues

• High level of conflict associated with illegal CSM

• The Illegal CSM enterprise employs about 130,000 people and provides livelihood support for 650,000 people. It has also contributed to the emergence of forest based enterprise e.g. carpentry shops, wood villages/markets and charcoal production.

• Strong support of local communities for illegal CSM

Why is it important to address the domestic market issues• The Government in 2008 signed a VPA with the EU to govern

trade in timber. Under the VPA, legally produced timber should be exported to the EU. This agreement includes the supply of legal lumber to the local market which currently is made up of 84% illegal chainsaw lumber.

• Domestic lumber supply has become a serious forest governance issues in Ghana and without finding an viable solution, it will be difficult to implement any sound sustainable forest management

• Ghana’s current forest cover is 1.6 million ha. down from 8 million ha at the beginning of the 1900s. Deforestation rate is 65,000 ha/yr and one of the major cause of deforestation is CSM.

• Illegal CSM account for about 2.5 million m³. Together with other illegal logging and legal harvest, the total timber harvest in Ghana amounts up to 4.5 million m³. This is double the current official annual allowable cut of 2 million m³.

• Illegal CSM is an important source of livelihood for many forest fringe communities, but there are serious conflicts associated with the practice.

TBI Ghana Led Initiatives

Main approach

• To bring together all relevant stakeholders on a platform to dialogue and collectively develop a viable solution to address the illegal CSM and supply of legal lumber to the domestic market.

Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue-MSD

Understanding CSM issues (causes and consequences)

Policy recommendations

Change in practice Alternative livelihoods

Sharing Int. lessons and experiences (Best practices to address illegal CSM)

Establish an effective MSD to discuss CSM issues ( National consensus about CSM in Ghana reached)

Institutionalize MSDInform international policy & practice

Acton research

Evolution of Artisanal Milling Concept

Project strategy

Evolution of Artisanal Milling Concept

Main issues discussed

Three options based on a case study, the regional meeting and the technical committee discussions: 2009-10

i. Sawmills alone to supply the local market with legal timber

ii. Sawmills and artisanal millers to supply the local market with legal timber

iii. Artisanal millers alone to supply the local market with legal timber

Evolution of artisanal milling

• Development of policy proposal for supply of legal lumber to the domestic market in 2011

• In March 2012, government endorsed the policy and an action plan was developed

• A key strategy in the policy proposal is the development and piloting models of artisanal milling.

Note: The use of artisanal milling equipments such as portable ban and circular saws is not new in Ghana, but the concept is new

Evolution of artisanal milling

From 2010-12, stakeholders have discussed the definition of artisanal milling. In November 2012, stakeholder agreed on the definition follows:

“Artisanal milling is small-medium scale milling of timber from specified legal sources by a trained, certified, registered and licensed Ghanaian artisan, using licensed portable sawmilling equipment that excludes any form of chainsaw machines and capable of recovering at least 50% of dimension lumber from logs for the domestic market only. This may be processed in-situ or ex-situ"

Evolution of artisanal milling

The definition answers the following key questions:

• Who should be an artisanal Miller?• What should be the scale of operation?• What machinery type should be used?• What should be the % of efficiency ?• Where should the target market be ?• Where should the raw material come from?• Where should artisanal milling take place?

Note: Artisanal Milling Concept is being developed

Evolution of artisanal milling

• In 2012, TBI Ghana and FC under the FAO-ACP project initiated a process to move artisanal milling from policy strategy into business practise

• Modalities and strategies for linking artisanal milling groups/associations to TUC holders to enable them enter into partnerships to produce legal lumber for the domestic market were developed.

Successes

Capacity building sessions were held for chainsaw operators to transform to artisanal millers at the project communities Group dynamics and leadership development trainingBasic business management trainingTechnical training models covering key areas have been developed and carried out in the AT pilot site by FORIG,WITC and RABMILL.Managing AT as a business entity training•Draft Chain of custody•Draft artisanal milling modules•Draft artisanal milling concept

Successes• Chainsaw operators in 13 pilot communities (about 640

people) have been organised and their capacity built to enable them form artisanal milling groups/associations

• Six of the groups have legally registered and the rest are processing documents for registration

• Artisanal milling equipments (portable bansaws) have been acquired for the groups in Obogu (through Husqvarna),

• Wood mizer for Sankore and Brewaniase (through TIDD by government)

Successes• Groups in Sankore and Akrodie have been linked to

concession holders for supply of legal timber resources (business agreement signed between Logs and Lumber Ltd.)

• Developed monitoring framework (monitoring and reporting of illegalities)

• Groups in Fiyiase, Ando-Awiam, Obogu and Kyekyewere are involved in plantation establishment

• Organising and building the capacity of DOLTA to dialogue effectively

• Development of public procurement policy on wood and wood products (TIDD)

Challenges

• Acquisition of artisanal milling equipment for the remaining pilot sites

• Dealing with the high numbers of chainsaw operators who are willing to transform to artisanal milling

• Limited timber resource: Some of the concessionaires who were willing to enter into partnerships with the artisanal millers had their timber utilization contracts (TUC) expired.

Challenges

• Building agreements/consensus: it took more meetings than expected to build agreements/consensus on issues. e.g. definition of artisanal milling took 2 years.

• Dealing with the fear of elite capture of the artisanal milling concept

Way forward

• Solicit more resources to expand the piloting to the remaining pilot communities

• Continue with capacity building of artisanal millers

• Finalize the development of the concept of artisanal milling, module and chain of custody for the domestic market

• Develop regulatory framework for managing artisanal milling

Way forward

• Intensify plantation development and on-farm tree management to bridge the gap between demand and supply of timber.

• Link more concession holder to artisanal millers to supply legal timber raw material

• Pilot the proposed lumber depot system

Way forward

• Continue with the awareness creations

• Strictly enforce the ban on illegal CSM activities

• Pursue the development of alternative livelihoods who cannot be absorbed into artisanal milling.

THANK YOU

www.chainsawmilling.org