Forestry Commission Should Make Prices of Trees Public

This situation has made plantation development unattractive to farmers, forcing some of them to convert their tree plantations to other land uses, including illegal gold mining (Galamsey), a field study involving a Participatory Rural Approach (PRA) conducted in August-September, 2014 by Tropenbos International (TBI) Ghana in 10 forest fringe communities has revealed.

It is therefore necessary for the Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD) of the Forestry Commission (FC) to publish the prices of all tree species, especially, the LUS, on platforms that are readily available to farmers to make them aware of the prices. This would protect them from being exploited by buyers and consumers and make plantation development more attractive to farmers.

The issue of low prices of trees emerged as a major concern among plantation developers during a Stakeholder Analysis carried out by the Resource Management Support Centre (RMSC) of the FC to identify stakeholders for the Landscape Restoration Project (LRP) being undertaken jointly by Tropenbos International (TBI) Ghana and the FC.

The exercise was aimed at identifying stakeholders involved in landscape restoration, specifically, in smallholder forest plantation development. It was also aimed at identifying the types of stakeholders, their level of stake, stakeholder groups and their level of power and also gather valuable information regarding their needs.

Three separate studies were carried out at four resource rich communities at Dunkwa in the Central Region, two resource average communities at Offinso in the Ashanti Region and four resource poor communities at Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Based on these studies, various categories of stakeholders were identified including landowners, chiefs and traditional authorities, tree growers, the FC, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), timber contractors, artisanal millers, herbalists, forest fringe communities, the Fire Service Department and the Government of Ghana among several others.

The Stakeholder Analysis was necessitated by the fact that, the success and sustainability of the LRP is dependent on the influential interest of stakeholders, their contributions to the project and what they stand to benefit from the project. Consequently, stakeholder participation is essential for the success of all forms of forest protection and management strategies.

It is hoped that the TIDD will respond to the lack of awareness of tree prices by private plantation developers, which was identified as a stumbling block to the sustainability of private plantation development in Ghana through the stakeholder analysis, by making such vital information available to farmers.