Woodcarvers push for a place in Ghana’s voluntary partnership agreement amidst risks of being excluded

Woodcarvers push for a place in Ghana’s voluntary partnership agreement amidst risks of being excluded

Ghana - 08 April, 2016

Woodcarvers in Ghana are pushing for their products to be included in the VPA since they cannot be exported if they are not certified under the VPA as the time for the implementation of Ghana’s Legality Assurance System (LAS) under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) signed between Ghana and the European Union (EU) draws closer.

This constitutes a big blow to the wood carving industry since most artefacts are purchased by tourists and also have a high demand on the export market while demand on the domestic market is relatively low.

In response to their concerns, the Timber Legality Compliance and Advocacy Project (TILCAP), being implemented by Tropenbos International Ghana with funding from the EU, brokered a meeting between representatives of the Aburi Industrial Woodcarvers Association and top ranking officials of the Forestry Commission (FC) to discuss ways by which the Wood Tracking System (WTS), a tool for tracking wood from its origin to the point of export to ascertain its legality, can be used to track the legality of the wood from which the artefacts are made so that they can be exported. The meeting was held on the premises of the FC in Accra on March 30, 2016.

The exportation of artefacts proved to have eluded the discourse on the VPA and consequently, the design of the Wood Tracking System which does not track materials that are not produced from regular timber.

Most artefacts are carved from tree stumps and dead wood from off-reserves which are not captured under the Wood Tracking System since the FC has no mandate over materials outside the forest, especially when those materials are not trees.

In addition, the materials in consideration are widely scattered hence it would be difficult for the FC to visit their locations and certify them while the cost of inspection, which is normally borne by the business owner, might prove to be too high given the quantity of materials involved.

Furthermore, before the VPA can come out with standards that should be met by woodcarvers before artefacts from a timber product can be considered legal, there is the need to determine what the importing countries would accept as enough proof for the legality of an artefact.

The view of the FC is that since the original list of materials that require a Forest law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license did not include artefacts, the list should be reviewed to allow for the issuance of FLEGT License to cover exportation of artefacts.

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Consequently, there is the need to design a special tracking system for artefacts to ascertain their legality which will also demand that the list of items that require FLEGT Licenses under the VPA be expanded to cover artefacts. This calls for a wider discussion after which the issue can be referred to the Joint Negotiation Table between the EU VPA Team and the Ghana VPA Team to negotiate for artefacts to be covered by Ghana’s LAS and to define what constitutes the legality of wood from which artefacts are made from.

In this regard, the Aburi Industrial Woodcarvers Association has been advised to write officially to the FC voicing their concerns about the implications of being excluded from the VPA for action to be taken on the issue since the issuance of FLEGT Licenses for certified wood products under the VPA is expected to commence from the last quarter of 2016.