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Ghana, EU sign 'Trade and Aid' Deal on Legal Timber
Exports
Accra, Sept. 3, Ghanadot/GNA - Ghana and The
European Union on Wednesday signed a groundbreaking trade
agreement that would stop imports of illegal timber into
Europe from Ghana.
The deal will offer European consumers a credible guarantee
that Ghanaian timber products have been obtained in a manner
that protects Ghana's remaining forests and benefits local
forest communities.
Ghana’s Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Esther Obeng
Dappah and Mr Stefano Manservisi, Director-General for
Development of the European Union, signed the agreement.
The deal which was announced in Accra, during the world's
Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, is the first of
a series of legally-binding bilateral agreements, known as
Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs), envisioned between
the EU and individual timber-producing countries.
VPAs are part of a package of measures set out in the
European Commission's 2003 Action Plan on Forest Law
Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), which recognises
the EU's responsibility to tackle its own demand for
high-risk imported wood.
Ghana thus becomes the first country to have concluded a VPA
with the European Community. In Africa Cameroon and the
Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) are currently negotiating
VPAS with the EU.
Europe imports more than half the timber Ghana produces for
export, from a total forest sector worth an estimated 400
million dollars a year. Timber ranks only behind gold,
tourism and cocoa in export earnings for Ghana.
Illegal logging has been responsible for rampant
deforestation in the West African nation, and estimates
gathered by the World Bank suggest that around 60 percent of
logging has been illegal in recent years.
Globally, the World Bank has estimated that illegal logging
and uncollected timber taxes cause losses in assets and
revenue in excess of 15 billion dollars annually, more than
six times the total official development assistance to the
sustainable management of forests.
The deal brings to a close a 21 months process and commits
Ghana to developing transparent systems for collecting
timber taxes and ensuring legal compliance in their forest
sector; and the EU to establishing border measures to
exclude unlicensed Ghanaian wood from the European market.
The two parties have also agreed on the pillars of a FLEGT
licensing scheme that includes definition of legal timber,
system of verification of legality and timber tracking
system, licensing system and independent monitoring.
The EU expects that 'FLEGT timber,' as the licensed products
are currently known, will begin to be exported by partner
countries from late 2009.
Commenting on the deal Mrs Dappah said: “We are committed to
delivering on these provisions in the agreement.”
However, she said, resource constraints could make
implementation difficult and called on donors to make good
their pledges on timely basis to ensure a good outcome in
delivery on the agreement.
Mrs Dappah said the two-year long process in engaging with
the EU had been a good-learning experience and lauded the
contributions of the various stakeholders in the internal
consultative processes in enhancing good governance.
“The deal will send signals to other countries to come on
board to ensure that consumption contribute to economic
growth,” Mr Manservisi said.
GNA
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