Improving Forest Governance in West Africa

The unsustainable use of forest resources in Ghana, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire has been the cause of enormous forest loss, environmental degradation, poverty, political instability and even civil war. This 18 months project aims to reverse the policy and legal bias presently in favor of large-scale forest operations and aims to strengthen local peoples' land tenure and access rights in the above mentioned three countries. The planned FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Treaty) agreements between the EU and Liberia, Ghana and Cote d' Ivoire provide an excellent leverage point. Recent developments in Ghana and Liberia show that there is now a window of opportunity to make progress. This project is a joint project of FERN in partnership with Civic Response, Ghana, on behalf of the Forest Watch Ghana coalition and the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) in Liberia, facilitator of an NGO coalition in Liberia. As part of the project future partners in Cote d'Ivoire will be identified. These three countries have all indicated to want to negotiate a FLEGT VPA with the EU the coming years. Planned activities include researching the current legal framework, presenting data to governments and EU institutions, coordinating NGO participation in the negotiation of the FLEGT agreements at national and regional level and lobbying the EU. If successful, this project will have contributed to a better understanding of the existing statutory and customary legal framework in Ghana and Liberia concerning forest use. It will have created a close working relationship among NGOs in Liberia and Ghana and between NGOs in Liberia, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, as well as between these NGOs and NGOs in Europe. It will further have ensured an active and well informed participation of these NGOs in the (planned) negotiations for a FLEGT agreement between these countries and the EU, to the extent that these agreements will strengthen existing customary law and, where appropriate, statutory law. This will lead to lasting social, economic and ecological improvements and thereby contribute to peace and sustainability in this fragile region. Last, it will lead to improved EU policies, notably those on timber procurement, in line with requirements of the FLEGT Action Plan.

The project contributed directly to the creation of an effective network of strong NGOs in West Africa some of whom had never met before but now really work together. This includes NGO leaders from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Cameroon. They are the best placed people to ensure forest law reform takes place that reconciles the needs of communities with sustainable development of the country as a whole. This has manifested itself already in Ghana where the FLEGT agreement signed with the EU clearly states that communities need to provide written consent before logging. The agreement furthermore states that a process of forest law reform must be concluded within three to five years with the stated intent to further improve forest governance, enshrine FPIC and regulate the timber industry. In Liberia the NGO coalition managed to draft and get adopted by the Parliament a community rights law that recognises the customary tenure scheme in operation in most of Liberia. The law awaits approval by the president. March 2009 also saw the start of official negotiations for a FLEGT agreement between Liberia and the EU. The main results of the project include: The signalling of a legally binding FLEGT agreement between the EU and Ghana in September 2008 that requires written consent from local communities before logging as well as a process for forest law reform to be finalised within three to five years that will ensure that Free Prior Informed Consent will become part of Ghanas laws; Clarification of customary rights situation in Liberia published in a landmark report and the adoption by both houses of parliament of a community rights law in September 2008. The creation of an African network on Community Rights Extensive co-operation between NGOs in Ghana and Liberia active in FLEGT (and REDD) processes. Active participation of a wide coalition of NGOs in FLEGT processes in Ghana and Liberia, starting March 2009, as well as Cameroon and recently Sierra Leone. Six European countries have now adopted timber procurement policies, three of which explicitly list social criteria as a requirement for sustainability. Launch of formal negotiations between EU and Liberia