2 Organisations team up to manage African forests
The Africa Timber Organisation (ATO) and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) are collaborating to promote the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Programme in member countries in Africa by developing and implementing principles, criteria and indicators (PCI) established for forest management.
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The management process, which began in 2003 and is expected to continue until 2015, is on the theme: “Promotion of Sustainable Management of African Forests”.
Due to challenges the organisations have had with funding over the period both the ATO and ITTO adopted a strategy to raise funds to cover the three phases of the project.
The first phase began from 2003 to 2007, while the second and third phases cover 2008 to 2010 and 2011 to 2015 respectively.
Training workshop
To achieve improvement in the implementation of the third phase of the project, a six-day training workshop was held at the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) at Fumesua in the Ashanti Region for public officers, non-governmental organisations, the wood industry, women’s groups, tree growers, landowners, independent groups and researchers.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Africa Regional Co-ordinator for the third phase of the programme, Mr Oliver Ahimin, noted that it was necessary to acknowledge the goodwill and interest with which stakeholders were working to develop the PCI.
He said the PCI was a tool required in the training of auditors in member countries if they were to assess the status of forest management practices.
He commended the representatives from the Resource Management Support Centre (RMSC), Forestry Commission (FC), FORIG and the Working Group on Forest Certifications Ghana for successfully planning and implementing the pilot audit mission in Ghana.
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FORIG
The Director of FORIG, an affiliate of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr Victor Kwame Agyeman, said member countries must have standards for measuring progress on sustainable management forests.
He said for auditing purposes, PCIs must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.
To achieve results, Dr Agyeman outlined four criteria to be used to address the issue. Looking at the forest as a holistic entity, he said the criteria must have an economical, environmental, social and cultural perspective.
RMSC/FC
The Director of the Resource Management Support Centre (RMSC) of the Forestry Commission (FC), Mr Edward Obiaw, who chaired the opening session, said when Ghana takes advantage of its membership of both the ATO and ITTO, it would enhance the management of forest resources and their sustainability.
He was hopeful that the workshop would contribute to the Forestry Commission’s vision and mission of bequeathing the future generation enough natural resources by successfully including PCIs in the auditing of forest resources.
NWG
The Director of the Working Group on Forest Certifications, Ghana, Mr Emmanuel Amoah Boakye, said developing generic standards for both the ATO and ITTO was a crowning glory for the group.
He expressed the hope that the trained auditors would put to good use the skills acquired in order to achieve sustainable forest management practices.