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.1 . PILOTING COLLABORATIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

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IN OFF .. RESERVE AREAS IN SOUTHERN GHANA:

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FINAL WORKSHOP Held at the Christian Village, Kumasi

20 .. 21 July 2000

Sponsored by The International Tropical Timber Organization

Japan.

Organized by FMSC, Kumasi

Editor: Mercy Serwah Soafo

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Introduction and Background

The ITTO/FSD project: Piloting Collaborative Forest Management Systems in off­reserve Areas in Southern Ghana held its final workshop on 20th and 21 st June 2000 at the Christian Village, Kumasi, Ghana. About 200 people participated in the workshop comprising representatives from the forestry sector NGOs, and the forest fringe communities. The theme of the workshop was' " Consolidating Achievements in Collaborative Forest Management".

The project was initiated to pilot collaborative systems for sustainable management of off-reserve timber in the high forest zone of Ghana. The purpose of the project was to:

Institute new management systems for the sustainable production of off-reserve tree and forest resources by farmers, traditional authorities and communities in collaboration with timber right holders and professional foresters.

The beneficiaries of the project were individual farmers and rural communities, traditional land holding authorities, timber rights holders and the stewards of the forest resource.

The project began in November 1996 and has been implemented by a team drawn from the Forest Management Support Centre, GTMO/GTA, FORIG, community representatives and traditional authorities. The Project had a duration of approximately three years.

The first major task of the project was to inform the membership of the Ghana timber trade associations, community leaders and other stakeholders of the current state of the off-reserve timber resource and the new procedures for allocation and administration of the resource. The Forestry Services Division have recently completed the first national inventory of the tree and timber resources off-reserve. This data was used to provide the industry with a clear picture of the present resource base and future projections.

The project worked with a number of companies holding timber utilization contracts to develop practical procedures for negotiating and implementing Social Responsibility Agreements (SRA). This work involved consultation with timber men and community leaders at three pilot sites. The final output of the project was the preparation of joint guidelines by the Forest Services Division and stakeholders on

1. Community Forest Management Committees· 2. Community Forest Nurseries 3. Community Involvement in tree regeneration 4. Community Involvement in Forest Exploitation

This report is the proceedings of the final workshop of the project and highlights the achievements of the project from the perspective of the beneficiaries. It also identifies the way forward at the end of the project.

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Workshop Organization

Workshop chairpersons

MRS. GYTA-NUNOO MR.J.G.K, OWUSU NANA DR.AKABO (REPRESENTATIVE OF OFFINSOHENE)

Workshop Sponsors

INTERNATIONAL TROPICAL TII\/IBER ORGANIZATION (lTTO) FOREST SERVICES DIVISION OF THE FORESTRY COMMISSION (FSD, FC)

Workshop Organizing Committee

DR. KWESI T.ORGLE ALEXANDER B ASARE DR. KYEREH-BOATENG MR. ATTA OWUSU MR. KOFI MAINU NANA OPIAH MENSAH MR. WALLACE KOOMSON MRS. VALERIE FUMEY NASSAH MR.DICKSON ADJEI SAKYI MISS CHARITY APPIAH EMMANUALLA AGYAPONG

Workshop facilitators

MR. OSEI OWUSU DR. KYEREH BOATENG

Rapportuers

WALLACE KOOMSON MERCY SERWAH BOAFO

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PILOTING COLLABORATIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN OFF RESERVE FOREST AREAS: FINAL WORKSHOP REPORT. ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

Introduction and Background Error! Bookmark not defined.

Summary of Workshop Proceedings 2

PART ONE: OPENING SPEECHES 5

Welcome Address: Mr. A. B. Asare - manager CFMU, Project Directorate Member 6

Address by Chief Executive, Forestry Commission: The role of the Forestry Commission in collaborative forest management in Ghana: Mr. S.K. Appiah. 7

Key Note Address: The Role of the Forest Sector in the Socio-economic development of Ghana. Dr. Amoako Nuamah Hon. Minster of Lands and Forestry 11

PART TWO: ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT. 13

Summary of Achievements of the Project: Dr.Kwesi Orgle - Director FMSC. 14

Summary of Achievements of the Project-CFC representative, Dunkwa 19

Summary of Achievements of the Project-CFC representative, Offinso 22

Summary of Achievements of the Project - CFC representative Nkoranza 24

Discussions: project achievements 25

PART THREE: PLENARY SESSIONS - PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSIONS OF GUIDELINES. 26

Operational Guidelines on Community Forest (management) Committees: Project Directorate 27

Guidelines on Community Forest Nurseries: Project Directorate 45

Guidelines for Optimising Community Involvement in tree Regeneration: Project Directorate 51

Guidelines on Community Involvement in Forest Exploitation: Project Directorate 60

PART FOUR: WORKING GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND QUESTIONS 67 Community Representation in Forest Management 68 Community Involvement in Nursery Management 69 Community Involvement in Regeneration 70 Community involvement in Exploitation 70

The way forward 71

APPENDICES 72

Appendix i: Workshop Program 72

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Summary of Workshop Proceedings

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Summary of Workshop Proceedings

The workshop began with a welcome address by Mr. A.B. Asare, Manager Collaborative Forest Management Unit and a member of the project directorate. In his address, he mentioned that collaborative forest management plays an important role in achieving sustainable forest management. He stated that the purpose of the workshop was to publicise the achievement of the ITTO/FSD project, which was successfully executed under an 8-member project directorate with the help of local communities and selected timber companies. Citing the important role played by individuals in a canoe as an example, he emphasised the need for every participant's contribution towards the success of the workshop. He gave the assurance that each persons' views, ideas and opinions were welcomed and would help in identifying gaps and addressing issues in collaborative forest management with special reference to the above project. On this note, he declared the workshop opened on behalf of the Ashanti Regional Minister.

The Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission addressed participants on the role of the Forestry Commission in collaborative forest management. He stressed that the role of the Forestry Commission is set out in a number of documents such as the Forest and Wildlife Policy of Ghana, the Timber Resource Management Act, the Forestry Commission Act, etc. He noted that under the Ghanaian constitution forest reserve ownership still remains with the stool whilst its management is vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people of Ghana. In addition, the constitution identifies the Forestry Commission as the pre-eminent agency for forest management and it is responsible for the regulation and management of forests. He mentioned that one of the major principles in the constitution is the need for social justice and people's right to participate in development activities.

He explained that the specific role of the Forestry Commission is to initiate and maintain a dialogue with all its stakeholders through a national advisory forum and related district conservation committees to ensure active public participation. The Commission is also expected to develop and maintain ongoing contact and liase with local authorities and communities, to pursue integrated development activities related to sustainable natural resource management. He explained that the Timber Resource Management Act is the first legislation that gives a legal backing to the Forest and Wildlife Policy and it is important because it also confers the right of other stakeholders to be consulted in the allocation of Timber Utilisation Contract(s). This Act also ensures the right of landowners to veto timber harvesting on their off-reserve land and contractors are also required under this act to negotiate Social Responsibility Agreements with landowners .

To this end, he emphasised that the Forestry Commission must set new standards of effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and accountability to succeed. He assured participants that the immediate task of the FC is to persuade communities that the FC and its various sectors are changing from being "Policemen" to becoming a valued and trusted participant in collaborative forest management.

The Executive Director of the FC delivered the keynote address on behalf of the Minister - The Role of the Forest Sector in the Socio-economic Development of Ghana. He noted that all over the world people are agitating that collaborative forest management is the best option to promoting sustainable forest management and Ghana is no exemption. The strength of the national economy, he said, depends on the efficient use and sustainable management of the land, which is the basic natural

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resource. For the 31 % of the total population who are described as 'poor' a better life means gaining access to and satisfying the basic human needs. The forest is the first natural resource which provide these needs in the form of food, access to job, health facilities, education, housing and portable source of water, shelter and energy. She stated that in quantitative terms the forestry sector is the third most important foreign exchange earner and between 1990-1998 the sectors contribution has ranged between 6-11 % of the total GDP. She mentioned that in addition to this the forest sector generates about 11 % of the total export earnings and generates over 6.1 million annually as revenue to national coffers. The forestry sector employs about 100,000 people and about 2 million people depend on it for their livelihood.

He noted that the significant role of forestry in the national economy makes it one of the most important natural resource in the country, making its sustainable management very crucial for national development. Furthermore, she noted that sustainable forest management is the joint responsibility of the people who own the land, the managers of the resources and the government of Ghana. Genuine participation therefore involves mutual understanding, open consultation, ownership and commitment. She explained that in most parts of the world achieving participation has become difficult because of

o Wrong perception of the people on the intended benefits of forest resource o Weak institutional and regulatory capacity at the local level for transfer of

authority o Complexity and diversity of land tenure system coupled with land litigation o Lack of effective leadership for efficient management of forest resources and o High level of mistrust on government policies due to past experience.

He explained that the workshop has provided the right atmosphere to discuss the ways of overcoming these difficulties.

On this note, and on behalf of the Ghana Government, she expressed appreciation to the ITTO for funding the pilot study on collaborative forest management systems in off reserve areas.

A summary of the achievement of the project was presented by the chairman of the project directorate on behalf of the chairman of the steering committee. He noted that since 1994, when the new Forest and Wildlife Policy aimed at ensuring sustainable management of forest resources both on and off-reserve was promulgated, new measures have been put in place to ensure sustainable timber production off reserve. These measures include:

A commitment to ensure that the resource owning communities benefit from the sale of timber from their land and are encouraged to participate in forest management particularly by tending and planting trees on their farmlands.

He noted that one of the key issues critical to the sustainable use of the forest resources outside forest reserves is the establishment of a good relationship between landowners, farmers, timber companies and foresters to ensure that rural communities plant, tend and protect the timber crop for the future. Ironically, some timber companies have taken these initiatives. Based on the objectives for off­reserve forest management as provided under the Forest and Wildlife Policy of Ghana, the then Forestry Department, now the Forest Services Division through the Ghana government applied to the ITTO for funding to conduct stUdies aimed at developing systems to be applied in pursuant of policy objectives for off-reserve forest management. The project: "Piloting Collaborative Forest Management

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Systems in off-reserve Areas in Southern Ghana" took off in November 1996 and run for three and a half years.

This was followed by a summary of achievements .in the three pilot sites. A representative from each of the pilot sites presented to the participants some achievements of the projects and the changes that have been effected since the beginning of the project.

Generally, for all the pilot sites a Community Forest Committee has been established to be the contact between the FSD and the local communities. The project, through the CFCs have successfully performed the following activities

o Awareness creation on forestry issues such as importance of trees to their environment and its influence on rainfall.

o Awareness in some of the new forest laws and regulations and the roles and responsibilities of the local communities in respect to these laws in and around their communities.

o Community nurseries have been established in all the pilot sites. Thousands of exotic and indigenous seedlings have been raised, sold or planted by the CFCs as an input into forest rehabilitation.

o There has been a drastic reduction in illegal activities in each of the sites. The CFCs have taken the pain and responsibility to check and ensure that all illegal operations, which come to their notice, is stopped and or prevented. Culprits are reported to the appropriate divisions if they prove difficult.

In connection to the success of the project activities it became eminent that guidelines are prepared on the following:

o Community representation in forest management o Community involvement in nursery management and forest regeneration and o . Community involvement in exploitation of timber resources

These guidelines were prepared by the project directorate members and were presented during the workshop for discussion. The afternoon section of the first day was dedicated to these presentations and discussions.

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PART ONE: OPENING SPEECHES

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PART ONE: OPENING SPEECHES

Welcome Address: Mr. A. B. Asare - Manager CFMU, Project Directorate Member

The CFM manager, also a member of the project directorate on behalf of the Ashanti Regional Minister, delivered the welcome address. During his address, he mentioned that collaborative forest management play an important role in achieving sustainable forest management, as the participation of local communities provide a lot of inputs in that direction. He stated that the purpose of the workshop was to publicise the achievement of the ITTO/FSD project, which was successfully executed under an 8-member project directorate with the help of local communities. Citing the important role played by individuals in a canoe as an example, he emphasised that each participants should contribute towards the success of the workshop. He gave the assurance that each person's views, ideas and opinions were welcomed and will help in identifying gaps and address a lot of issues in collaborative forest management with special reference to the above project. On this note, he declared the workshop opened on behalf of the Ashanti Regional Minister.

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Key note Speech: The role of the Forestry Commission in collaborative forest management in Ghana: Mr. S.K. Appiah.

Chief Executive, Forestry Commission:

The role of the Forestry Commission is set out in a series of documents, principally, o The Ghana Constitution (1992) o The Ghana Forest and Wildlife Policy (1994) o The Ghana Forest Sector Master Plan (1996) o The Timber Resource Management Act (1997) and o The Forestry Commission Act (1999)

The recent Forestry Commission Act deals principally with institutional reform within the government sector and does not confer additional roles and responsibilities on government beyond those identified in previous documents. In practice it transfers some of the traditional government roles to the re-established Forestry Commission as a corporate body.

Under the Ghanaian constitution whilst ownership of forests resources remains with stools, responsibility of management of Ghana's forest resources is vested in the President on behalf of and in trust for the people of Ghana.

Section 296(1) of the constitution assigns responsibility for regulation and management of forests to the Forestry Commission. The constitution therefore explicitly identifies the Forestry Commission as the pre-eminent government agency for forest management. The constitution also lays down series of principles to guide policy makers. These include:

o The need for social justice o Peoples' right to participation in development o Decentralised local government and o Economic development based on a major role for the private sector

The new Forest and Wildlife Policy approved in 1994 clearly demonstrates the government's commitments to

o Conservation o Sustainable development of the nations forest and wildlife resources o Maintenance of environmental quality o The perpetual flow of benefits to a/l segments of the society

This Policy makes a clear statement that the permanent forest will be managed by the institutions of the state, in collaboration with local people to ensure: -

o Preservation of water and soil resources o Conservation of biodiversity o Sustainable timber production for both domestic and commercial use

Reflecting on the constitution both the 1994 policy initiative and the support Forest Sector Master Plan of 1996 identify a series of guiding principles and strategies for implementing collaboration between state agencies and other stakeholders.

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The guiding principles include

o The rights of people to have access to natural resources to maintain a basic standard of living in return for their responsibility to ensure a sustainable use of those resources

o The need for state agencies to incorporate traditional methods of resource management into the national strategies if and when appropriate

o That a share of the financial benefits from resource utilisation should be retained to fund the maintenance of production capacity and for the benefit of local communities.

o The need to develop a decentralised participatory democracy by involving local people in matters concerning their welfare and

o Placing emphasis on the concept of participatory management and protection of forest and wildlife resources

Strategies identified include

o Promoting public awareness and involving rural people in forest and wildlife conservation

o Developing an effective capacity at the national, regional and district level for sustainable natural resource management

o Developing conSUltative and participatory mechanisms for land and tree tenure rights of farmers and ensuring local peoples access to traditional products

o Promoting community involvement in natural resource management

The Forestry Commission's role is broadly defined as o Initiating and maintaining dialogue with all stakeholders through a national

advisory forum and related district conservation committees to ensure active participation and

o Developing and maintaining on going contact and liaison with local authorities and communities to peruse integrated development activities related to sustainable natural resources management.

The Timber Resource Management Act (1997) is the first legislation to give legal backing to the 1994 policy and strategy guidelines. The Act introduces the timber Utilisation Contract (TUC) as the instrument for allocating timber-harvesting rights both on and off reserve.

TUC's are between the government as represented by the Minister of Lands and Forestry and the timber contractor responsible for administering the process of both developing and then monitoring TUC's.

A timber rights evaluation committee headed by the Forestry Commission's chief executive vets all TUC proposals from timber contractors according to prescribed criteria and recommends proposal to the Forestry Commission Board, which in turn recommends proposal to the Minister.

The Act is important since it also confers rights on other stakeholders to be consulted during the process.

o Representatives of both concerned stools and local district authorities have a clear role in assessing whether the area is actually suitable. These include participating in identifying area boundaries and operational specifications.

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o All prospective new TUC's must be openly advertised. For the first time landowners and farmers have the right to veto timber harvesting on their off reserve land.

o Contractors are also required to negotiate Social Responsibility Agreements with landowners.

The Forestry Commission Act, which reinforces the 1992 constitution, mandates the Forestry Commission to

o Regulate utilisation of forest and timber resources o Conserve and manage these resources o Co-ordinate policies related to them

This includes but not limited to

o Managing forest reserves and protected areas o Providing proper planning for the protection, harvesting and development of

forest and wildlife resources in a sustainable manner o Monitoring the condition and extent of forest and wildlife resources o Controlling the harvesting of the forest and wildlife resources o Making recommendations to the Minister on the granting of timber rights and

wildlife resources o Advising the minister on forest and wildlife policy with particular regards to

management practices which sustain resources and improve productivity o Assisting the private sector and other bodies with the implementation of the

forest and wildlife policies by supporting the development of forest plantations for the restoration of degraded forest reserves the increased production of industrial timber and expansion of the countries protected forest cover.

This is a tall order and can only be achieved through extensive co-operation and co­ordination between all stakeholders. In addition, the Forestry Commission must set new standards of effectiveness, efficiency transparency and accountability if it is to succeed.

We have made a start: -

o A dynamic and committed Board of Commissioners have been appointed o We have restructured the Forest Services Division. This involved a

retrenchment programme where we paid redundancy money and provided training and equipment allowance

o We are looking at further ways of reducing our costs, whiles improving our services delivery

o We realise that salaries must be improved to reduce the temptation for corrupt practices and we acknowledge that management practices and discipline must improve considerably

o We intend to decentralise and put our limited resources to work as close to where they are needed as possible

o We will renew our services and services delivery standards to make them more customer focused

o We are undertaking an extensive study of the wood industry. This will help the Ministry of land s and forestry develop more appropriate industrial policies

o The GTZ funded forum project in the Volta region have developed some interesting and sustainable community based approaches to collaborative forest management

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, : ! o The DFID funded Forest Sector Development Project will assist us develop

pilot studies to investigate different approaches to collaborative forest management.

o The Dutch Government will also assist us improve our understanding and capacity to sustainability manage our wildlife resources,

o We intend to enlarge the Forest Management Support Centre to incorporate a wildlife dimension. The new facility will be called the Resources Management Support Centre.

Finally we believe this is a true demonstration of the Forestry Commissions commitments to greater participation collaboration' accountability and transparency we intend to develop an ombudsman function in each region and within the new Forestry Commission to enable communities to have direct assess to senior management to air their grievances

I am a realist. The above involve a significant change in the way forest and wildlife will be managed in Ghana. However, we believe we have the vision, commitments and broad base support from our government and the Donna community. Our immediate task is to persuade communities that we are chancing from being a policeman to becoming a valued and trusted partiCipant in collaborative forest management. Thank You.

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Key Note Address: The Role of the Forest Sector in the Socio-economic development of Ghana. Dr. Amoako Nuamah t

Hon. Minster of Lands and Forestrv

The face of forestry is c\1anging and all over the world people are agitating for collaborative management as the best option for promoting sustainable forest management. This workshop is therefore timely not only to contribute to the debate but also to provide a model for Ghana to effectively implement the collaborative forest management concept. On behalf of the Ghana government we wish to extend our appreciation to the International Tropical Timber Organisation for funding the pilot study.

On the programme I am expected to deliver the keynote address concentrating on the role of the forest sector in the socio-economic development of Ghana. I will therefore focus my address on the contribution of the forest sector to the Ghanaian economy and draw on certain basic tenets of collaboration, which needs to be addressed when developing systems for effective collaboration.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ghana is endowed with considerable natural resources, which constitute the backbone of the national economy and the basis of its wealth. These natural resources are found on, in under and above the rich land resource and include land and its resources like the forest, wildlife, minerals, inland water bodies, marine and coastal fishery. The strength of the national economy therefore depends on the efficient use and sustainable management of land, which is the basic natural resource.

According to recent studies, about 31 % of the total population of Ghana have expenditures below the higher poverty line and could therefore be described as poor or very poor ((Poverty report 1996). For the poor a better life means first satisfying the basic human needs including food, access to job, health services, education, housing and portable water. Interestingly, the first resource providing for these basic needs is the forest. The forest is exploited for food shelter, clothing, energy, medicine and spiritual advancement.

Mr. Chairman trees provide timber for industrial processing, fuel for domestic and industrial usage, food and drink, medicine, shelter, canes, poles for electricity and buildings, chewing sticks etc. These benefits are quantifiable. However, there are other equally important uses that may not be quantifiable and these include environmental conservation, soil conservation, water purification, climate stability genetic resources and wildlife habitat. This shows that Ghana's tropical rainforest has a multiplicity of uses, which depends entirely on the integrity of the forest being maintained. .

In quantitative terms, the forestry sector is the third most important foreign exchange earner of the national economy. Since 1975, the primary forest contributed to Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 6%, which was greater than mining, fishing, construction and many other manufacturing activities. Between 1990 and 1998 however, the contribution of forestry to the GDP has increased to between 6-11%.

The forest sector generates about 11 % of the total export earnings and generates over $6.1 million annually as revenue paid into national coffers. It employs close to

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100,000 people and it is estimated that it provides a livelihood to perhaps 2 million people, A large proportion of the people are involved in logging and collection of non­timber forest products which requires minimum skills. However, the sawmills and the furniture plants do employ skilled workers such as sawyers, mechanics welders, etc, as well as professionals in areas such as silviculture, engineering, production, transportation, design and finance.

The wood working industry has been one of the most successful export sector and the fastest growing activity within the manufacturing sector of the Ghanaian economy. The wood industry is made up of about 600 firms many of which are small and medium scale enterprises involved in logging, sawmilling, plywood, veneer, moulding and manufacture of doors particleboard and furniture,

Ladies and gentlemen, using timber utilisation as a guide, the volume of wood consumed by the housing sector is estimated at 522,000m3 with a per capita wood consumption of 0.036m3 . This estimate was based on an annual housing delivery rate of 4 units per year for every 1,000 people. The service sector consumes about 1 % of the wood available to the domestic market every year. Wood in various forms are used as rail sleepers, lumber for constructing mummy trucks and trolleys. Sawn wood is also used for road construction. The local fishing industry thrives on wood for the construction of canoes and boat. It is estimated that about 1 % of the annual harvesting quotas are granted to the canoe carvers to harvest, process and manufacture boats and canoe.

The cottage wood processing industry utilises wood for various purposes. Wood is processed to provide for kitchen cooking utensils, crafts for export and indoor decorations, etc. The volume of wood used by this sub sector is not known, but it could be estimated at about 1 % of the annual domestic wood consumption.

In Ghana fuelwood is the major source of cooking and heating for most rural and urban dwellers. More than 75% of the rural dwellers rely solely on fuelwood as their energy source for cooking and heating. It is estimated that about 12 million cubic metres of non-industrial wood products are used as fuelwood. Besides, the power transmission poles in the country rely on treated round woods. The current government rural electrification project is dependant on the supply of treated teak. The total annual teak consumption is estimated at 600,000m3

. Besides this, about 12 million m3 of non-industrial wood products are used as fuelwood and or charcoal.

The shaft mining operations rely on round log to support the prop. Most of the mining companies rely on-source teak plantation for supply of timber.

Ladies and gentlemen, the significant role of forestry in the national economy makes it one of the most important natural resources in the country. Its sustainable management is therefore crucial for national development. The concept of sustainable development has been perceived to bring about attention to the role of resource and environment in economic development theory. Sustainable development has been directed towards the alleviation of absolute poverty promotion of small scale locally controlled development and CO-evolution of appropriate social structures. The concept has brought into fore the notion of sustainability.

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PART TWO: ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT.

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PART TWO: ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT.

Summary of Achievements of the Project: Dr. Kwesi Org/e­Director FMSC.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ITTO/FSD PROJECT PILOTING COLLABORATIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR OFF-RESERVE AREAS IN SOUTHERN GHANA, PO 41/95.

Madam Chairperson, Hon. Minister of Lands and Forestry, Nananom, Distinguished guests and Workshop participants:

It is my pleasure to present to you today the achievements of the project " Piloting Collaborative Forest Management System for Off-reserve Areas in the Southern Ghana".

Madam chairperson, the Forest and Wildlife Policy of Ghana is aimed at ensuring sustainable management of forest resources both on and off reserve. Sustainable forest management requires a commitment to a level of harvesting not in excess of the Annual Allowable Cut (MC), which is currently fixed at 1 million cubic meters and a commitment to ensuring that timber production is both environmentally sound and socially responsible. It is also the intention of Government to certify timber exported from Ghana as coming from sustainable managed forest.

Since 1994, when the new Forest and Wildlife Policy was promulgated, new measures have been put in place to ensure sustainable timber production off reserve. The important elements of these measures include:

o A commitment to adhere to the MC o A commitment to certify timber from sustainable managed forest. o New harvesting procedures for off-reserve areas formerly known as 'interim

measures' and which have now been incorporated into the Timber Resources Management Act (Act 547) and its Ll1649.

o A move from a system of timber concession lease to timber utilization contracts (TUC), which ensure that rights are awarded to contractors able to operate in an efficient and responsible manner.

o A commitment to ensuring that the resource owning communities benefit from the sale of timber from their land and are encouraged to participate in forest management particularly by tending and planting timber trees on their lands.

o Incentive to support plantation development in and outside reserves.

One of the key issues critical to the sustainable use of the forest resource outside forest reserves is the establishment of a good relationship between landowners, farmers, timber companies and foresters to ensure that rural communities will plant, tend and protect the timber crop for future. Some timber companies have already taken the lead in this direction with the establishment of out grower schemes. These include Samatex, Swiss Lumber, Ehwiaa Woods and PTC.

Based on the stated objectives for off-reserve forest management, the then Forestry Department through the Government of Ghana applied to the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) for funding to conduct studies aimed at developing systems to be applied in pursuit of policy objectives for off-reserve forest

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management. The project took off in November 1996 and run for three and a half years.

The stated purpose of the project was to:

"Institute new management systems for the sustainable management of Off-reserve tree and forest resources by farmers, traditional authorities and communities in collaboration with timber right holders and professional foresters"

, The development objectives were:

o To ensure steady supply of raw materials for the timber industry from off­reserve areas in Ghana.

o To promote significant benefit flow for rural communities, farmers and traditional land holding authorities from the off-reserve tree and forest resource.

As a management strategy the project was scheduled into three overlapping phases:

Phase one was designed for initial consultation with all stakeholders.

Phase two involved fieldwork and discrete studies

During Phase three publicity and packaging of materials for expansion of systems piloted was undertaken.

The main emphasis of the project was on exploration of innovative systems and the use of the learning process approach to exchange ideas with the communities in order to design suitable collaborative forest management systems.

The workshop is therefore to highlight the key findings and development made towards the achievement of the project objectives.

Phase one - The ConSUltative Phase Day long conSUltative meetings were held with four communities, FSD staff, NGOs, timber men and other agencies. These were held between the months of January to June 1997. The output of these meetings was a compilation of issues for carrying forward the project. A major workshop was held on the 1 st and 2nd October 1997 to finalize the issues and to launch the field program.

Workshop participants were also provided with information on the state of the off reserve resource and the need to manage it in a controlled manner.

Phase two - Field activities and studies Pilot sites were selected based on the result of an off reserve inventory. Resource poor, medium and rich areas represented by Nkoranza, Offinso, Dunkwa, and spanning major timber producing zones with valid concessions were selected.

Following the selected sites, contacts were made with traditional authorities, concessionaires and community members. It is interesting to note that at this stage we were confronted with the task of finding active concessionaires who had paid up all outstanding royalties and were in good standing with forestry.

Some companies we approached, simply refused to participate fearing that the project would give undue exposure to their operations. Nevertheless some

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communities welcomed the project with open arms and in the end five communities in the Dunkwa District, four each at Offinso and in I\lkoranza accepted to participate. These communities were:

o Diaso, Nkronua, Amobakar, Bethlehem and Ntom in the Dunkwa District o Asuano, Donkronkwanta, I\lkaease and Chiradeaso in the Nkoranza District o Koforidua, Samproso, Anyinasuso and Kayera in the Offinso District.

feel gratified to acknowledge the presence of representatives of all these communities here today.

Madam chairperson during phase one certain issue constantly showed up and these were prioritized for further investigation under phase two of the project. These areas of concern were:

o access to seedlings and tree planting technology; o greater involvement in timber exploitation and more equitable compensation

payments; o knowledge and respect of community rights in matters related to forest

management; o strengthening of structures of representation and training of community

members in forest management systems. Field assistants were assigned from the Forest Services Division in all the three sites and in addition District Assemblies, Environmental Protection Agency, Min. of Food and Agriculture, Fire Service and the Police were consulted and their inputs integrated into the implementation of the project.

Activities of the project

Madam chair, there has been regular education on contemporary forest laws and regulations, rights and responsibilities of stakeholders and on the importance of the forest resources to our survival and well being on earth. These communities are now fully aware of contemporary forestry issues and participate actively in forestry programs.

It is gratifying to note that community representatives present at this seminar understand and can explain the procedure for felling trees off reserves and compensation packages associated with felling damage to farms. One side effect of their increased awareness is that some concessionaires working in these sites become uncomfortable because these people knew their rights.

Establishment of community tree nurseries as a source of livelihood in addition to supplying their demand for seedlings was also piloted. Two of the timber men at the pilot sites demonstrated how the industry could contribute towards forest management by providing seedlings, nursery equipment and Wellington boots to communities. Today we have 13 of such community-managed nurseries spread across the three sites. They produced a total of 25,000 seedlings during the first year and increased this to 100,000 during the second year. lVIost of these seedlings were sold at commercial rates to generate income to maintain and expand the tree nurseries.

Individuals and groups within the communities observed another important multiplier effect with the sudden proliferation of private nurseries. Credit for the establishment of these nurseries can be given to this project.

Communities at these sites have also planted about 100 hectares of woodlots and intercropped their farms with trees.

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In order to develop and promote innovative structures for community representation, we came out with the concept of Community Forest Committees (CFCs), which are the first of its kind in the country.

Major stakeholders in each community are represented on this committee. They have been educated on all the forestry laws and regulations to enable them further educate communities at the sites on their rights and responsibilities in forest management. They have also been involved in the checking of illegal timber harvesting activities, in addition to acting as nursery managers, mounting educational campaigns and generally serving as link between the FSD, concessionaires and the communities.

Two discrete studies important to forestry were also carried under the project. These are:

o Trees and timber inventories, carried out at the three pilot sites of the forest resources and the way farming systems and practices influence their present and future availability.

o A forest-based livelihoods study was also conducted to find out how forest resources could serve as a livelihood base for communities. Based on this study it has been realized that a follow up project must be conducted. A proposal has therefore been prepared and will be submitted to ITTO for funding.

Phase three - Publicity and Expansion phase

During this phase a series of publications, reports and seminars were organized to inform stakeholders about the project and its achievements. These publications include the following:

o A literature review on collaborative forest management activities off-reserve in West Africa

o A booklet on the state of the off-reserve forest resources o A leaflet on the new procedure for felling timber outside reserves o A manual for establishing forest nurseries.

Madam chair, at the inaugural training workshop for CFCs, the Honourable Minister for lands and Forestry urged the project to develop guidelines for use in operationalising CFCs nationwide. On behalf of the Directorate I am happy to inform you that these guidelines have been produced and will be presented to you today. These are the guidelines for community representation in forestry. In addition two other important guidelines have been drafted for discussion tomorrow. These are:

o Community involvement in regeneration and nursery management o Community involvement in timber exploitation.

Based on lessons learnt and programs designed and tested at the sites, these guidelines have been prepared to provide guidelines to FSD and other stakeholders in the management of the off-reserve forest resources. The presentation of these guidelines will provide participants with the opportunity to discuss and improve upon their content.

Problems and setbacks

As with all projects of such magnitude and scope, we were faced with some problems beyond our control during project implementation. Some of these include:

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The delay in the passage of Timber Resources Act (Act 547) and its LI 1649. This has delayed the award of TUCs making it difficult to pilot Social Responsibility Agreements as designed under the project.

Some collaborating partners such as district staffs of the FSD were often found busy chasing illegal chainsaw operators finding little time for the execution of the project. Paradoxically, these were the very problems the project was designed to resolve using consultative approaches. Staff of the FSD would have benefited tremendously from this project if sufficient time and effort had been placed on problem solving by consulting with communities.

Project Administration

A dynamic project directorate endowed with various skills and talents led this project. This team was composed of members from the Forest lVIanagement Support Centre, GTMO/GTA, FORIG, IRNR, community representatives and traditional authorities.

Communities, District Assemblies, contractors and FSD staff in the pilot sites and across the country have contributed to the success of the project through their partiCipation and inputs at workshops, seminars and .their support to CFCs and other community-based programs. I wish to say a big thank you to all.

In conclusion Madam chair, I should take this opportunity to appeal to the Forestry Commission, communities, timber industry and other forest stakeholders to pay careful attention to the presentation of key findings and the discussion of important issues that arise out of this workshop. This will go a long way towards ensuring the controlled expansion of the off-reserve timber resources for the benefit of f.uture generations. Thank you.

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Summary of Achievements of the Project-CFC representative, Dunkwa

Madam Chairperson, Hon. Minister of Lands and Forestry, Nananom, Distinguished guests and Workshop participants:

It is my pleasure to share with you this day some of the achievements of the ITTO/FSD collaborative forest management project through the community forest committees. As you may recall the CFCs were inaugurated by the Minister for Lands and Forestry on the 8th of April 1999 with the aim of involving local communities in the conservation, management and utilisation of forest resources so as to improve the flow of benefits to local people.

Diaso in the Dunkwa Forest District was one of the pilot sites. Madam chair, I want to start by briefing you on what prevailed in the Diaso Pilot area concerning forestry issues before the establishment of the CFCs by the ITTO/FSD; There was no awareness of forestry issues in the communities in the pilot area and this led to the encroachment of the forest reserves by farmers, hunting with fire in off forest reserves and the intensive and improper way of exploiting timber and non timber forest products (such as pestles, chewsticks, sponges, wrapping leaves and medicinal plants).

There were so much illegal timber activities in the area that even resulted in the interdiction of one technical officer of the FSD in the Bibiani District due to the fact that he was unable to shoulder the workload.

The community members did not back the global afforestation programme. To this end, there were neither tree nurseries nor timber plantations. There were also no signs of maintaining timber trees on farms by farmers.

Contractors failed to pay compensation to farmers for their damaged crops during timber exploitation because they knew farmers were ignorant about contemporary forest issues, this brought about quarrels and lots of argument and sometimes fighting between farmers and contractors

Community members often fought FSD staff who were ordered to mark timber trees on their farms though they were on official duty, farmers thought they were coming to take their properties from them.

There was no sawmill in the area and this encouraged illegal chainsaw operations since the community members found it cheaper to buy timber from such operators than going to buy it from distant sawmills.

With the establishment of the CFCs at the ITTO/FSD pilot site at Diaso area, comprising Diaso, Amobaka, Ntom, Bethlehem and Nkronua the people have been involved in a number of activities with the help of the dynamic pilot project assistant, Mr Fred Owusu Aduami.

First awareness on forestry issues and regulations has been created in the communities. Education on forestry issues are organised in the communities from time to time by the project co-ordinator and the CFC members. The project co­ordinator and the CFC members have also been visiting churches from time to time for similar education. With permission from the district office of the GEC the project co-ordinator and the CFC members have been going to schools in the pilot area from time to time on Fridays to educate students on topics like the interim measures,

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afforestation and causes and prevention of bush fires. The results of such education campaigns are numerous. A few that I will like to mention include Community members now back the global afforestation programme. They are inviting the CFC members for nursery establishment and timber plantations of both indigenous and exotic species. It is worth to note here that members of the CFC help such farmers with pegging, weeding and general maintenance of their nurseries and plantations.

There has been complete change in the attitudes of farmers towards FSD staff who undertake timber tree markings on their farms. There is a cordial relationship since they now understand each other. C.ontractors promptly pay compensation to farmers for damaged crops because farmers are aware of such rights .

Pupils in some schools such as the Nkronua D/C JSS have been undertaking tree planting exercises and pegging for farmers who prepare their farmlands for timber plantations. The education has gone down so well that other communities like Denkyira Obuasi, Asuadei and Nkrunua Atifi have written to the project assistant to contact the project directorate for the establishment of CFCs in those communities.

Apart from awareness creation, the CFCs have also been monitoring Social Responsibility Agreements in Timber Utilisation Contract so that benefits accrue to the communities. For example the Diaso CFC ensured that STS, SMS, and DSL, which are timber firms, honoured their agreements. An important achievement of the CFC is the reduction in illegal explOitation of timber and non-timber forest products. Illegal chain saw operations have been reduced to the minimum. Cases of arrest of illegal chainsaw operators and impounding of forest products by the CFCs in the area include the following.

The Diaso Amobaka CFC arrested one Asare Baffour who was illegally sawing Avodire into beams around 9.30pm in the Anwiaso South Forest Reserve. Forty-two Avodire beams were impounded. However, when the culprit was sent to the police at Diaso, the inspector in charge of the station nearly coiled the project assistant and the CFC members, but for the intervention of the Bibiani District Forest Manager who redirected the case to the Bibiani District Tribunal.

The Ntom community detained a truck loaded with odum and asanfena logs when they discovered with the little education they had received that the permit covered only odum. They delayed the truck with the load until the project assistant returned from a meeting in Kumasi three days later.

The CFC at Nkronua with the help of the project assistant chased a truck loaded with beams and impounded more than a hundred avodire beams twenty-five miles away from the community. A soldier in Kumasi was named as being involved in this illegal activity.

It is to this effect that the District Superintendent of Police at Dunkwa has suggested that a barrier be mounted at Diaso by the CFCs to check illegal forest activities. Apart from all these, the CFI's and the project co-ordinator give technical support to farmers who have taken to the maintenance of timber trees on their farms. In addition, the CFCs have started the cultivation of non-timber forest products such as pestles, chewsticks and medicinal plants.

Last of all, the project field and the CFC members have worked very hard for the establishment of a sawmill at Diaso by DSL limited to serve the local people. The sawmill is already operating in that respect. On this note I wish to humbly appeal to

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the authorities to continue their good work on collaborative forest management systems and also create such CFCs in other areas of the country. Thank you.

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Summary of Achievements of the Project-CFC representative, Offinso

Madam Chairperson, Hon. Minister of Lands and Forestry, Nananom, Distinguished guests and Workshop participants:

I feel very honoured to be called upon at this important gathering to highlight the achievements of the CFC in the Offinso pilot site. Geographically, the District covers an area of 1255 km2

, which forms 5.2% of the total area of the Ashanti Region. It is located in the extreme north-western side of the Ashanti Region sharing a boarder with the Brong Ahafo Region. The Offinso ITTO pilot site was chosen and inaugurated in July 1998 at Kayera. The pilot sites include Koforidua, Samproso, Kayera, Ayinasuso and their surrounding villages.

Achievements Awareness of forestry activities: The introduction of the ITTO project has created awareness of forestry issues within the pilot sites and it has made people aware of the new forestry laws and legislation, their rights and responsibilities in forestry issues such as pre felling inspections etc.

Community Nursery activities: Different kinds of seeds both indigenous and exotic are provided by the project directorate and distributed to the four communities for establishment of nurseries with technical assistance from the FSD technical officer.

Each community has established a nursery. Details of the nurseries are given below.

Community 1999 stock 2000 stock Total Remarks Koforidua 7,400 4,050 11,450 Indigenous Samproso 1,900 1,800 3,700 and exotic Kayera 4,120 3,150 7,270 seedlings Anyinasuso 1,500 1,890 3,390 Total 14,920 10,890 25,810

Afforestation Programme: The project has a total of 165 people who have planted trees on their farms. A total of 23,365 indigenous tree species were planted in 1998 and 1999. The oman he ne of Offinso Traditional Area and some of his sub-chiefs e.g. Nana Akuoko have engaged in tree planting. The queen mother of Offinso Nana Serwaa Nyarko and the sub-queen mothers have made a community tree plantation of about 8 acres. The queen mother of Koforidua, Nana Akua Anima has made about 10 acres of tree plantation. Yet news is still spreading to encourage more people into tree plantation.

Reduction in illegal activities: The presence of the ITTO Forest Committee has reduced illegal chainsaw activities. Barriers have been erected at various places to check illegal timber activities. The CFCs have stopped all illegal charcoal burners. They are advised to request for permit from the District Forest Office, that will make us monitor the particular tree they are burning and also check bush fires. Palm wine tapers are warned not to heat their palm trees with fire during the dry season.

I suggest there should be a law that will compel hunters to register under the CFC before they go out for hunting. This will help us to meet them and educate them on their hunting during dry seasons, in order to stop bush fires.

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Further more we thank the Government of Ghana and the Government of Japan for this project, which has helped to improve the forest in Offinso District. We have not forgotten the ITTO directorate members and Offinso District Forest Officer Mr. Gyabaa who has now been transferred to Cape Coast. IVIr Sowah, etc. who helped towards the success of the project.

Shortcomings o Financial assistance is needed o Assembly members and unit committee members should be absorbed into

the CFC to help in checking chainsaw activities o There should be a law to protect the committee since there are threats from

people involved in illegal activities o Money should be given to the secretariat to finance educational campaigns

on tree planting and nursery establishment o More technical assistance should be given o Capital is needed for tree planting activities

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Summary of Achievements of the Project - CFC representative Nkoranza

Madam Chairperson, Hon. Minister of Lands and Forestry, Nananom, Distinguished guests and Workshop participants:

Awareness has· been created on the importance of trees to man and the environment.

Tree planting has been very important since the inauguration of the community forest committee.

People have been educated on the negative effects of over exploitation and destruction of trees as such there is a reduction in tree cutting and destruction by farmers.

Cutting of live trees for charcoal burning has ceased due to the pre~felling inspection conducted by the committee.

Many farmers buy nursed seedlings from us (CFC), an indication that more people are now into tree planting .

Planting of trees by farmers has also resulted in reduction in bush fire since farmers are consciously protecting their trees from burning.

Chainsaw activities and illegal tree felling have reduced drastically.

The owner of KOPON farms a very prominent farmer has shown a great interest in tree planting and has planted ten acres of teak trees.

The forest committee with the help of the fire committee in the area has helped to stump out bush fire e.g. nobody can burn his/her farm without first consulting anyone of these groups. The CFC has extended their activities to Akuma, Brohoho and Banofour, we have educated them and have started planting some trees, and we are yet to inaugurate the committees. Arresting of offenders has helped to put fears in some of them; e.g. a charcoal burner at Ayerade was arrested for not using dead trees and at Asuano, another person was arrested for sawing beams. The chiefs and assembly people are helping very much.

Finally, we thank the government of Ghana and the government of Japan for this project initiative, which has helped improve the forests in our area. However, we lack equipment such as overalls, boots, cutlasses etc. We are yet to be introduced to the District Police Inspector and the Omanhene to give us their support should there be any problem.

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Discussions: project achievements Questions Response Chairperson "How do you feel after being empowered and having achieved so much success in collaborating with the FSD?

Community Rep 1

Community Rep 2:

Community Rep 3

Community Rep 4

Community Rep 5

Community Rep 6

Community Rep 7

Chairperson " I will suggest and invite you to present such wonderful achievements to the forestry commission through the project directorate together with your problems and concerns.

We are very happy about it

We need more encouragement from the Forestry Commission to do more work than we have down now.

We are working hard to plant trees and in other forestry activities so that the nation will benefit and the future of our forests will be secured but we can't do this on an empty pocket. Many of us farmers think that the trees we are planting will not mature before we die. We therefore need some capital as incentives for tree planting, and while awaiting the maturity of the planted trees. Whenever we mention such things you forget all about it the moment you leave. Please try to keep your promise so we will be motivated to continue doing the good work. Remember trees are not like food crops so we can't cook them and eat.

I have a small piece of land at Nkoranza. Food production has reduced. I am happy about how our food crops are growing now but fire has swept our forests away so we thank you very much for the good work you are doing in our area.

Please educate assemblymen, unit committees chiefs and landowners to give us land to plant trees

We are happy ab.out one thing: Ownership of planted trees and payment of compensation. We are happy that we as farmers can now decide on when and which trees to sell. This has been a motivation for us to plant trees.

We feel that we are now involved in the management of the forest. We feel that we are part of it now.

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PART THREE: PLENARY SESSIONS -PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSIONS OF GUIDELINES.

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PART THREE: PLENARY SESSIONS PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSIONS OF GUIDELINES

Operational Guidelines on Community Forest (management) Committees: Project Directorate

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Most countries in the tropical regions, which incidentally have developing economies, had considerable forest coverage at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Deforestation became the order of the day due to the need to increase food production to satisfy an ever-increasing population coupled with the quest to exploit readily available timber to provide cheap source of revenue and foreign exchange.

In the late seventies deforestation had become so rapid as to threaten a major environmental disaster, notably, the phenomenon of global warming from the accumulation of green house gases. The fate of forests was therefore no more to be left with individual nations but to be dealt with at the international level. International involvement in forests took the form of conventions and programmes designed for nations to ensure sustainable management of their forests. One such all-embracing programme was the FAO sponsored Tropical Forestry Action Plan.

Under the auspices of the TFAP, funds, strategies and expertise were made available to needy nations to put in place sound forest management programmes. Other international programmes were also executed under both bilateral and multilateral arrangements. The culmination of all these programmes was the renewed interest in forest research and training, increased donor funding and the provision of technical expertise. In Ghana the World Bank and countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany (to name a few) have assisted immensely in the implementation of forestry programmes that have to be of far reaching success in helping to maintain the integrity of her forest resources.

Having embarked on initial studies it became apparent that throughout the poor developing nations forest fringe communities greatly influence the fate of forests since they depend on these forests for most of their livelihoods. Since the dawn of this knowledge almost all forest programmes have embraced some form of community involvement such that today the practice of community forestry has come to be synonymous with forestry all over the globe.

1.1. Forest Types of Ghana In general there are two types of natural forests that have survived over the years in tropical regions such as Ghana: the Tropical High Forest and the Dry Savannah Forest Whereas the former is characterised by the presence of high value timber and thus is of extreme importance to powerful commercial interests represented by both governments and loggers the latter tends to be of significance to local people who extract products of crucial sUbsistence importance such as firewood. Both types of forests offer the associated environmental services by way of ameliorating micro­climatic conditions, protection of watersheds, and conservation of biodiversity.

A major difference between the two types of forests is that population densities around dry forests tend to be higher with the people relying heavily on the forests' resources for livelihood purposes whereas population densities around THFs are lower with the people engaged on off reserve farming as their main livelihood.

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Pressure on forest resources and the way forests are to be managed taking into consideration collaborative forest management imperatives therefore tends to be different for the two types of forests.

In view of the differences associated with the two forest types which goes on to affect the social environment of forest management, these guidelines have been tailored to suit representative structures for CFM practice in the HFZ rather than the dry forest zone (DFZ).

1.2. Forest Ownership Ownership of forests is closely linked to the indigenous system of land ownership within the country. In Ghana, land is communally owned and is held in trust on behalf of the people through the stools and skins. On that basis landowners exert substantial control in deciding as to whether an area should be set aside as a reserve. Although the laws of the country grant authority to the government to constitute any land it deems fit as a reserve, landowners must be consulted through an arbitration process under the jurisdiction of a reserve settlement's commissioner who must take into consideration the concerns of landowners. There were instances when the constitution of proposed reserves have had to be abandoned due to strong opposition from landowners.

In some instances, as in game reserves, the government purchased the lands outright from the landowners. Under those circumstances the government becomes the bona-fide property owner and enjoys commensurate rights just like any other landowner. In effect landowners - whether stools, skins, the government or individuals - wield immense power on the setting aside of an area as permanent forest estate and in all cases have their rights to revenues from the exploitation of the resource.

1.3 Ghana's Policy on Community Forestry Ghana's approach to community forestry is inspired by the 1994 Forests and Wildlife Policy. The Policy enjoins the nation towards 'the conservation and sustainable development of the nation's forest and wildlife resources for the maintenance of environmental quality and perpetual flow of optimum benefits to all segments of society.

Other relevant provisions of the Policy relating community forestry are to:

o Promote public awareness and involvement of rural people in forestry and wildlife conservation so as to maintain life-sustaining systems, preserve scenic areas and enhance the potential of recreation, tourism, and income generating opportunities.

o Promote and implement public education programmes to increase awareness and understanding of the role of trees, forests and wildlife and the importance of conservation.

o Develop consultative and participatory mechanisms to enhance land, tree tenure rights of farmers, and ensure access of local people to traditional use of natural products.

In terms of the guiding principles the policy stipulates that in view of the importance of local people in pursuing these principles, the Government proposes to place particular emphasis on the concept of participatory management and protection of forest and wildlife resources and will seek to develop appropriate strategies,

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modalities and programmes in consultation with relevant agencies, rural communities and individuals.

1.4. Structure of Guidelines The main aim of these guidelines is to provide information on how to set up management structures for implementation of community forestry programmes. The guidelines are meant to be applied by foresters, practitioners of community forestry, non-governmental organisations, local authorities and communities.

Within the guidelines, concepts on forestry, forest policy, and issues connected with community forestry have been described. On the management structure itself the broad framework governing community leadership systems have been explained. Later in the guidelines more detailed measures have been provide. This has, however, been narrowed down to a community management structure that has proved workable to the FSD .

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CHAPTER 2. DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY FORESTRY

2.1 Definitions

Against the background of the policy framework governing community forestry there is the need to define what constitutes community or collaborative forestry. One definition with a broad outlook of community forestry that embraces all the various communities with interests in forests as listed above is that given by Carter (1999) as: "Working partnerships between key stakeholders in the management of a given forest"

In Ghana the Forest Services Division (FSD) has adopted a narrower outlook choosing to call its community forestry concept as 'collaborative forest management', which is defined as:

"A working partnership between the local people and the Forest Services Division to ensure that management of all forest resources is equitable and more efficient".

The FSD has since 1993 pursued strategies to achieve the goals as set under the definition of collaborative forest management. This has taken the form of ensuring that land owning communities secure in timely manner a fair share of the benefits that are derived from forests whether reserved or outside reserves. To this end, revenues passed on to the land owning communities have been substantially increased whereas bureaucratic impediments have been removed to enable revenues to be paid on a quarterly basis at decentralised locations. Resource exploiters are additionally enjoined to directly execute development projects at the community level through what is termed as Social Responsibility Agreements. Such projects benefit everybody within the community including migrants and natives in an equal manner unlike revenues, which are supposedly passed on to the land owning communities only.

Similarly, the FSD has instituted systems that involve communities in decision making as well as implementation of forest operations to promote efficiency in its work while guaranteeing fair remuneration to forest fringe communities. It is now enshrined, as part of the forest management procedure that community needs assessments must be undertaken, community workshops held and management plans agreed upon by both forest fringe and land owning communities.

The provision of fair share of benefits and invitation to communities to participate in execution of forest operations leads to better management of forests thus facilitating the achievement of sustainable forest management to the satisfaction of all sections of society.

When it comes to the implementation of operations under management plans, forest fringe communities in particular are encouraged to be assigned tasks on a negotiated contract basis. Operations that communities are successfully engaged in are maintenance of forest reserve boundaries and rehabilitation of degraded reserves. Meanwhile further exploratory work is going on to develop systems to embrace more community participation in forest operations.

Considering the fact that there are several interest groups or 'communities' associated with the ownership, management and use of forests, it is essential that interests of each community is addressed when community forestry is recognised as the cornerstone of a forestry programme. This can be achieved only when the

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opportunity is created to enable the views of various interest groups to be represented in decision-making. Under an International Tropical Timber Organisation and Government of Ghana sponsored project 'Piloting Collaborative Forest Management Systems for Off-Reserve Areas in Southern Ghana' a successful system of community representative structure for community forestry projects was evolved. The need was therefore felt to have the system documented for widespread adoption in Ghana and other countries pursuing similar community or collaborative forest management programmes.

2.2 Areas of community involvement

Collaborative forest management can be practiced at the two levels of involvement of communities in decision-making and in the execution of forest operations. Collaboration in decision-making ranges from the highest levels of policy and legislation formulation through forest systems development and projects formulation down to the level of forest reserve management planning.

2.2.1. Policy and Forest Plans Formulation

Collaboration can be infused into the formulation processes of policies, legislation and general guidelines concerning forestry. In fact it is at these levels that the highest decisions are taken thus the guiding principles must incorporate the views of all relevant stakeholders otherwise there are bound fo be inequitable arrangements against some of the parties. In the case of Ghana, as already mentioned, our current forest policy was formulated through collaborative dialogue processes. Since then all issues involving high-level decisions employ collaboration as a tool to determine the outcomes. A few examples will suffice here,

The issues at stake become publicized thus removing prejudices emanating from ignorance and skepticism amongst communities who in any case are to be bound by the decisions reached. The quality of decisions reached is of the highest standards ever since ideas are shared amongst people of varied backgrounds and responsibilities. The people assume ownership of the decisions thus becoming committed to their implementation. Conflicts are removed amongst opposing forces when people are brought together at a round table for discussions on controversial issues to increased flow of information among collaborating partners.

2.2.2. Forest Operations

Generally if it is feasible and more efficient then forest fringe communities should be assigned to take charge of particular responsibilities of forest operations. These range from protection of forests, development of the forest resources, harvesting and exploitation and finally, utilisation, processing and marketing. Besides, economic feasibility aspects of community involvement in forest operations, there is also issue of involving communities in these tasks so as to make them share in the common vision of sustainable forest management.

2.3. Degree of Community Control

In every community forestry program, the goals specify the extent to which communities are to be involved in the management of the forest resource. At one extreme no conscious effort is made to involve communities whereas at the other extreme communities may have full control of management over the forest

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resources. The extent of involvement of communities in forest management is explained in Table 1. Collaborative forest management as practiced in Ghana advocates the adoption of all these approaches depending on the ownership and management rights over the forest.

Table 1. Hierarch of de Level Community Control ommunl y In U con ro, Id' '1 bl ec mca a vice aval a e on

request by community. e.g., Adwenase Community Forest, Foso

Full Community Involv~ment FSD increasingly ceding controL e.g. trees on farms Partial community involvement Interested community members involved planning,

implementation & management. E.g. Afram Headwaters.

I Consultation FR,Offinso Communities actively encouraged to offer ideas. E.g. Interim Measures

1I nformation Telling people what is to happen. E.g. broad spectrum workshops-ITTO workshop at Kumasi in

. Oct,1997 Persuasion Securing a commitment to pursue community.

participation. E.g. SRA in TUC allocation Agency Control No reference to community in the scheme of issues. E

Demarcation of SBPAs in forest reserves.

2.4. Analysis of Forest Interest Groups

An understanding of the concept of community forestry could be made only by way of differentiating amongst the various interest groups on a given forest estate at any point in time. Broadly defined, the term 'community' refers to a conglomeration of persons with identifiable characteristics and or common interests. It follows that in the case of forests, the following five categories of communities could be identified: These are:

People with ownership rights over the forest People living within or close to the forest estate People who use forest products. People who become affected by changes in the forest People who provide resources towards management of the forest.

From the above it may happen that the same person could belong to one or more of the communities.

In Ghana forest ownership is patterned along customary land ownership traditions thus kinsmen own forests with their traditional heads represented by skins and stools serving as overseers on behalf of the people. In Ghana's contest whenever mention is made of consulting communities on forest management activities it is to this land owning group that readily comes to mind. This is because they constitute an identifiable entity with justifiable legal rights to benefits from forests. Benefits and consultations are normally passed through the traditional heads and elders, however, owing to the complexities of the traditional hierarchical leadership structures beneficial revenues reach chiefs who are only high up in the hierarchy. This tends to isolate the traditional leaders who find them themselves at the grassroots level where the people are settled close to the forest.

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In terms of settlements within and around forests the people tend to be either natives or migrants. Although no authority has fixed any distance within which to delineate forest fringe communities, an arbitrary distance of approximately 5 kilometres around forests have been proposed as being practically suitable. In contemporary community forestry parlance, whenever there is talk of involving communities in forest management, it is to this community that practitioners refer to. In Ghana the problem presented is that amongst the forest fringe communities are migrants who legally do not have to enjoy any of the ownership rights, however, by virtue of proximity to the forest all such members of the forest fringe community should of necessity be included in forest management activities.

In terms of forest products the community of users tend to be far and wide. The most basic of users are those who harvest timber and NTFPs for commercial and domestic purposes. Other user communities are those who do not necessarily consume products from the forest but all the same make use of the forest for such purposes as observance of rituals, recreation and other allied functions. Furthermore, one must include secondary purchasers of such goods and services up to the consumer. All the consumer communities along the chain tend to be interested in ensuring the sustainability of their supplies.

The fourth category of forest community interest group embraces those whose lives are impacted in one way or the other by changes that occur to the forest. Such impacts are mainly of an environmental nature; for example, flooding due to siltation resulting from forest cutting, build up of green house gases, and a host of other environmental impacts.

The last category of forest community is the one that provides resources to facilitate management of the forest. To this group can be mentioned forest owners who have relinquished the use of their forest for the common good, the general public as represented by governments through the use of taxes on forest management activities, donors and voluntary bodies that offer both resources and technical expertise.

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CHAPTER 3. EXISTING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES

In seeking to evolve structures suitable for community involvement in forest management, there is the need to recognise that already governing structures are in place within each community and as such those structures should be taken into consideration. Ghana has since time immemorial had its traditional structures for managing the society. The structure falls into both the traditional and the modern.

3.1 The Traditional Governing Structure The traditional leadership structure has the village or township headed by an 'odikro' as the basic unit. The odikro is normally appointed by the ohene as a caretaker chief at a distant village under the jurisdiction of the ohene. A number of odikros' serve under the 'ohene' who in turn serves under the 'omanhene'. At each level the ruler has a group of 'elders' to assist in administrative functions. Decisions are therefore arrived at based on consensus by the elders and the chief sitting at the chief's court. In terms of land, final oversight rights are vested in the omanhene on behalf of the indigenous community. The ohene by right enjoys part of the powers of the omanhene but to a lesser degree. Under customary traditions, however, the odikro is not entitled to any such rights. This explains the reason for the non-payment of royalty shares to odikros' or ordinary members of the community. The Social Responsibility Agreement system has been designed to address this problem.

3.2. Formal Governing Structures The formal structure of governance is represented by the central and local government structures. The executive wing of the central government acts through ministries and territorial authorities at the regional and district levels. Acts are passed at the Parliament and assented to by the President and passed on to the sector agencies such as the FSD for implementation. In times past such agencies used to execute their programmes without assigning formal roles to communities. With the advent of community-based programmes, attitudes are changing and systems are being created to integrate traditional structures with formal ones in the execution of programmes. Notable amongst these is the Collaborative Forest Management Programme of Ghana.

At the basic elementary level, ten elected Unit Committee chairpersons represent the people within each electoral zone. They hold meetings with the entire community to deliberate on important issues affecting the community. The outcome of such meetings are implemented by the entire populace or passed on to higher authorities for implementation.

At the next higher-level communities are represented by elected assemblypersons that constitute the District Assembly. The DA plans and supervises the execution of programmes within the district. It also has the powers to pass byelaws to regulate matters of local concern. Additionally, each DA has an Environmental Sub-committee that exercises oversight responsibility on all environmental matters, including forestry issues, within the district.

3.3. Justifying Specialised Community Development Structures The argument has been that the DA structure should be adapted to facilitate the execution of community forestry activities. These guidelines therefore seek to provide the tools by which such a modified structure could be formed to complement government structures in the management of forest resources. Basically, the modified community forestry structures should be operated according to the principles as outlined in Box 1

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BOX 1

Principles Governing Operations of Community Forest Committees

FSD District, Region and Head Offices are to ensure the formation and operation of the structures within their jurisdiction. At the local level the structures should be infused within the Unit Committee and District Assembly structures through byelaws by the District Assemblies. The governing body should be broad-based with fair representation amongst primary community stakeholders. The governing body should be a blend of existing traditional and local government structures as well as any new structures created for the purposes of community forestry. The selection procedures amongst each stakeholder group should satisfy democratic principles. The elected body should occupy office for a fixed period of time after which a new body must be elected. Primary forest resource beneficiaries such as the FSD, landowners, and the District Assemblies should agree on a system to finance activities of the community representative structures. Extra funding sources should be identified and formalised by the FSD through the offer of services by the community representative structures to resource users such as commercial timber and NTFP operators, communities and projects. Finally, the community representative structures should be recognized as integral part of the communities and groups they represent and as such must act in the best interest of their people.

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CHAPTER 4. FORMA nON OF COMMUNITY FOREST COMMITTEES

4.1. Genesis of Community Forest Committees

In a bid to devise an appropriate community forest management structure, the FSD in conjunction with communities and timber concessionaires implemented a project that explored and developed what has now come to be known as Community Forest Committees (CFC). The original project aim was to devise innovative schemes by, which timber and forests outside forest reserves could be managed by communities and timber concessionaires with technical assistance from the FSD. Under the project, consultations were held with major stakeholders connected with forest management outside forest reserves to identify important forestry issues requiring attention. A strategic plan was therefore formulated to address the issues. At the early stages of project implementation, it became apparent that there was the need to form exclusive management structures at the community level to link up with the FSD to execute the project's activities.

4.2. Formation processes

Under the ITTO/FSD sponsored collaborative project, a strategy was drawn up to investigate and devise a suitable community forest management structure that could stand the test of time. The activities that were executed in order to achieve the formation of the structures have been refined and are outlined in Box 2. Once the structures were formed there was the need to come out with a suitable name. After extensive deliberations the name Community Forest Committees was arrived at though some other names such as Forest Management Committees, etc. were considered to be equally suitable. The term committee was already familiar amongst the rural populace thus they could easily understand the role such a body was to play. Also the term community and forest describe those who are to constitute the committee as well as the kind of activity they are to be engaged on

.-------------.~-----~.----

BOX2 Community Forest Committees Formation Processes

1. Undertake publicity campaigns amongst the target community on the need to form community forest management committees.

2. Conduct PRA to determine the form of the management structure. 3. Conduct education to explain modalities of selecting representatives

and operating CFCs to all interest groups. 4. Set date and time to elect interest group representatives. 5. Hold rallies to introduce selected representatives to entire

community. 6. Jointly formulate working modalities and programmes with CFC

members and community. 7. Provide adequate resources for implementation ofCFC activities.

monitoring, reporting and review mechanisms.

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4.3. Membership Criteria

Membership of the CFCs should be derived from the major or primary identifiable groups or stake holders within the community. Stakeholders that must of necessity have at least one representative on a CFC are as indicated in Table 2. Members constituting a CFC at the village level should be a total of seven, nine or eleven persons. The executives are to be selected from the members.

Table 2. Criteria for Stakeholder Representation on Local CFCs.

iS~~~d:-- --1 ::~:::.ti:hene,-oma:h~::'SU:_Chief or -a~~!e~~-rn-ta~~:or I-:-_c:-________ ~Iected re--,-p-:-re_s-:-e_n_ta-:c-t_iv_e __ ~_~_ LC!r1~Q~I2~~ _____ L~~~!E3Ql~rt'1i~ad _________________ i Qr1_e __________ _ Farmers A member of a farmers' or crop association or One or two

Women farmers' elected represeJ:ltati~~ ________ _ Queen mother or representative, a member of One or two a broad based women's group or elected

I The Yo-uth---- - ~~tt1f~!'!~~-~iaBons or elected--youth lone or two j

~~~~t;~loiters + ~:ii~;:l~:~:::f~~- -- ------ fc~: ~ ~ --=J Iun~--COmmittee I Elected representative. -------------- One--------I chairperson rJ--- ---- ---- -- -11 --- ---- ------- ---- --- -------------- ------ -ir- -----------~~~~~~QI2 ~ect~~~~~~~~ti~_. ________________ ~~-----

~~!~~t'hCiO---- ~~I~!~~{~~:i~I~~ta!utorY-AgencTes,- e9 (ne to three members Forest Services Division, The Police Service,

_________ MOFA,~l~ _______________ _

4.4. Tenure of office

By way of tenure it is proposed that elected representatives should serve for a maximum of four (4) years after which they could be re-elected for a second term only. Communities or interest groups have the prerogative to recommend the removal of their representative(s) if there is cause that they are not performing as expected. The final authority to cause removal should rest with a majority decision by the respective CFC with endorsement by the District Forest Manager or a delegated officer.

4.5 Hierarchy of CFCs

The various envisaged levels of operating CFCs are: the village, TUCllocal area, district, regional and national. Whereas the village level membership will be derived from the primary stakeholders as outlined in Table 2. The Assembly Area CFCs (ACFC) will be formed from two representatives from the local (TUC) CFCs. The ACFCs are to elect their executive in line with laid down democratic procedures that prevail at the Local CFCs level. Higher levels of CFCs will derive their membership from the lower levels such that of the Area or TUC level will be formed from amongst the village levels while the district level will be formed from the Area or TUC level. This will go all the way up to the national level. The national level CFC will be consulted on major policy issues together with other members of the civil society.

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The national CFC will form a pressure group with equal or probably stronger influence than the timber industry associations. The structure of the levels is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Hierarchy of Community Forest Committees

Optional

NA TIONAL CFC

NATIONAL CAUCUS OF

COMMUNITY FOREST I '

REGIONAL CF~ CAUCUS OF DISTRICT

ASSEMBLY COMMUNITY

COMMITTEES

I DISTRICT ASSEMBLY CPC CAUCUS OF AREA

(ASSEMBLY) CFC & OTHER ST AKEHOLDERS

PARAMOUNTCY

AREA COMMUNITY

r~(MsEMBLYlCFC I

REPRESENTATIVES OF

VILLAGE/TOWN CFCS . !

VILLAGE OR TOWN CFC

7 -11 REPRESNT ATIVES OF

PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS

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CHAPTER 5. FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNITY FOREST COMMITTEES

At their fully functional state, the Community Forest Committees are to be the main channel through which the statutory forest management agency, that is, the FSD is to implement its collaborative forest management activities. To this end, the CFCs will operate from the grassroots up to the highest levels of forest management. The involvement of the CFCs in forestry will focus around the three levels of forestry, namely:

Forest Policy Formulation Forest Management Planning Execution of Forest Operations.

5.1. Forest Policy Formulation It is an enshrined provision in the Forest and Wildlife Policy of Ghana to involve communities in the adoption of decisions through a decentralised democratic system. The CFCs together with other forest forums in existence will contribute towards the formulation of forestry policies at the national, regional and district levels. Once the CFCs achieve consolidation on the ground they must become an integral part of all major decisions concerning forestry just as the Trade Associations, namely: GTA, GTMO, FAWAG etc. are consulted whenever any major policies are being introduced.

Since it is envisaged that there shall be district, regional and national forest committees, they shall represent the communities at each level whenever any forest formulation consultations are taking place. With the existence of these bodies it is expected that those in charge of forest policies will consciously assign a role to the CFCs in the course of the policy formulation procedures. The normal approach is to hold workshops and meetings at which the community representatives, that is, the CFCs will be invited to present their views.

After policies have been drafted it is proper that they are presented for comments by various stakeholders including communities through the CFCs. Workshops could also be held to subject such policies to public scrutiny before promulgation. By involving stakeholders throughout the formulation processes stakeholders tend to be more receptive of policies as well as committed towards their implementation. Another major advantage is the indigenous knowledge to be gained through consultations with the communities.

5.2. Forest Management Planning Current provisions on management planning require consultations with communities and landowners with a view to incorporating their views in management plans. Basically community consultations are required during the following stages of the management planning process:

o Conducting Socio-economic surveys to determine the felt needs of the communities

o Holding of interest group consultations o Holding of reserve planning workshop with communities and other

stakeholders o Endorsement of draft forest management plans.

Since the CFCs are the communities' representatives it is expected that they shall be consulted at all the stages of the forest planning process. More importantly because

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the CFCs executives should be made to append their signature on documents to ascertain that they, being the representatives of the communities, endorse the agreements, observations or arrangements contained in the documents.

5.3. Community Execution of Forest Operations In terms of community involvement in forest operations the CFCs are to play an immense role in supporting the FSD to assign tasks, roles and responsibilities to communities in return for commensurate rights, benefits and remuneration. Basically, communities can be involved in any aspect of forest operations since it is on record that some community forests are already being managed solely by the communities themselves with all tasks and forest operations being executed by the communities. The envisaged areas in which communities are to be involved in forest operations are broadly categorised into four:

Forest Information Acquisition Forest Protection Forest Regeneration Forest Resource Exploitation Commercial Forestry Operations

5.3.1. Forest Information Acquisition In pursuit of involving communities in every aspect of forest management, FSD staffs are to tap the indigenous knowledge base of communities to acquire data for forest management planning purposes. Communities should therefore be recruited to spot trees and or identify species during forest inventories. They should also be called upon to assist in the location and assessment of NTFPs as well as any rare resources that forests may harbour.

5.3.2. Forest Protection Traditionally, the FSD carries out series of activities designed to maintain the integrity of forest reserves. These involve the demarcation, clearing and patrolling along forest reserve boundaries. Also requisite portions of forest reserves are set aside for protective functions. These include Special Biological Protected Areas, Hill Sanctuaries, etc. it is expected that CFCs will be involved in the mobilisation of their communities towards effective protection of forests and forest resources as enshrined in forest management plans.

5.3.3. Forest Regeneration. It is in the area of forest regeneration that CFCs are really to prove their worth since they are viewed as the best bet for involving communities in plantation investment. The main functions of the CFCs in this direction are to:

o act as managers of community nurseries. o provide training to the community members on plantation development

techniques after undergoing a training of trainers course themselves. o play an active role in negotiations by ensuring that community interests are

catered for on such issues as access to degraded lands in forest reserves as well as off-reserve areas, access to credits and grants, formulation of agreements and any other envisaged issues.

5.3.4. Forest Resource Exploitation Another crucial role expected to be played by the CFCs is in the area of regulating timber and non-timber forest products exploitation. In this respect, the CFCs are to be consulted in all matters pertaining to the award and monitoring of TUCs. The Community Forest Committees are expected to lead the communities in terms of the following aspects of forest resource exploitation.

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Determination of TUC coverage areas Formulation and negotiations on SRA Implementation of development projects under SRAs Monitoring of operations of TUC holders Arbitration in cases of compensation payments Reforestation in connection with TUC requirements Negotiating for community access to timber for local use Negotiating on incentive payments for farmers who tend timber trees Management and production of NTFPs. Determination and monitoring of NTFP harvesting quotas.

5.3.5. Commercial Forestry Operations Since communities are now equal partners in forest conservation and management they might as well derive a fair share of the benefits accruing from forests. In this respect CFCs are to explore possibilities of enhancing the incomes of their communities through forest-based livelihood activities. These activities range from the running of commercial nurseries, plantation investments, taungya farming, contract works, small-scale timber conversion ventures, NTFPs processing and marketing, and a host of others.

Another important activity the CFCs could lead the communities is in the area of mobilisation towards productive income-generating ventures. It is anticipated that with time beneficial proceeds from timber harvesting would be channelled directly towards livelihood activities of communities. Interviews have revealed that in certain instances individuals would wish that community share in timber revenues be disbursed as credit to assist them in their livelihood activities. These activities could include integrated tree plantation cum agricultural production schemes by ensuring access to credit for the procurement of seedlings, labour, fertiliser, improved seeds and inventory credit schemes. The CFCs could through a screening mechanism act as guarantors for members of their communities and also assist in the recovery of credits.

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CHAPTER 6. WORKING MODAL/TIES

This chapter outlines the modalities by which CFCs could effectively carry out their assigned roles and responsibilities. As with every new human institution, it is essential that whatever modalities prescribed, is subject to refinements following the necessary review processes to achieve improved workable modalities.

6.1 Publicising the CFCs Since the CFCs are a new structure on the forestry management landscape massive amounts of publicity is required to explain their structure and functions. Apart from specialised forestry programmes publicising contemporary forestry developments, District FSD staff are to embark on publicity campaigns on important forestry issues including the fact that CFCs are now in existence to link the communities with forest management agencies. As part of the District's Annual Work Programmes the number and locations of campaigns to be mounted should be stated and reported on during annual audit workshops. District Assemblies, NGOs and communities themselves are also to embark on publicity campaigns to publicise the presence of CFCs.

As part of the publicity strategy each CFC is expected to mount notice-boards at conspicuous places within their localities. Such boards should contain clear, concise and detailed information as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. A Replica of a Community Forest Committee Notice Board

COMMUNITY FOREST COMMITTEE

FSD/ITTO COLLABORATIVE PILOT PROJECT

I NA Jl1E & A DDRESS OF C01\l{A;fUNTTY I

JVIEETING DATE

VENUE

TIME

CHAIRMAN

SECRETARY

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6.2. Maintaining Constant Interaction The foremost requirement of the CFCs is to maintain constant interaction with the communities they serve and the interest groups they represent. To this end, the following modalities are proposed:

Members of the Community Forest Committees should meet at least once in a month throughout the year. The entire CFC or executive should meet with the entire community at least once in three months, that is, every yearly quarter. Representatives of various interest groups serving on the CFCs should meet with the interest groups they represent at least once per month. Whenever any issues emerges, such as, the preparation of a new SRA, the CFC should call an emergency meeting with the entire community to inform them of developments and to solicit for their inputs. The notice boards to be mounted at each village or township are to be used in communicating information on meetings.

6.3. Training Since the CFCs are to be the links between the communities and the foresters, it is expected that they acquire knowledge on basic forestry issues to enable them offer the necessary services to their communities. FSD staff and other NGOs are to provide the technical expertise for training the CFCs. The training is expected to cover all the various aspects of forestry including new developments. Normally such training should take the form of workshops, practical working sessions, demonstration and field visits.

6.4. Basis for Legal Recognition Since it has been confirmed that the CFCs are functioning effectively at the pilot sites, it is proper that they are given formal legal recognition in the nation's forestry statutes. To this end they must be accepted as part of the forest management institutional make up. The Forest Services Division Charter, for example, makes provision for the recognition of such community structures.

Even in the absence of formal laws of recognition, the FSD or other forestry agency could initiate the formation and operationalisation of such structures and grant them formal authority by way of administrative directives and procedures.

In the meantime there are some paraphernalia that must be provided to CFCs to back them up and prove that they have been granted permission to play the role expected of them. The main important paraphernalia that CFCs are to possess as proof of their authority are:

Standardised Identity Cards endorsed by the Head of the FSD or the representative Rules, agreements and MOUs endorsed by the FSD, the relevant CFC and other collaborating partners. Certificates of attendance at workshops and seminars Relevant badges, Uniforms, Caps, etc. as may be appropriate. Finally, as part of the continuing education programme, CFCs are to be supplied with copies of all the relevant laws and documents that could aid them in their assignment.

6.5. Code of Conduct Generally for such human institutions there is the need to guide against abuse of power. There is therefore the need for members of the CFCs to observe a moral

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code of conduct that will prevent them from any abuses of power. The following list is presented as a guide to the members:

Act transparently in all their dealings with their communities and outsiders Place the interests of the communities above that of CFC members and executives. Properly document all transactions and distribute copies to as wide an audience as possible Boldly point out shortcomings of members and prescribe appropriate sanctions including dismissals where necessary. Be accountable to the people they are serving by constantly holding meetings to keep them informed of all major developments. Declare and rescind from partaking in activities, which involve conflicts of interest.

6.6. Motivation To stay committed to the role expected of the CFCs it is necessary that funds are made available to cover their operational expenditure as well cater for the use of their time and expertise. Funds are to be provided for the two categories of expenditure according to budgets approved between the CFCs, the community, the FSD, and the District Assemblies.

Under the prevailing set-up for disbursing timber royalties the main funds for CFC budgets should come from the FSDs operational budgets. Aside from that other sources of funds, which could be secured to further support the CFCs, are:

The District Assemblies share of royalties Traditional Authorities share of royalties Forestry projects Concessionaires as per SRA. Contributions from communities.

6.7 The Way Forward

Since there is ample proof that CFCs can effectively contribute towards collaborative management of forests, the next most important step is to form CFCs amongst forest fringe communities across the landscape of Ghana, particularly in the high forest zone where the concept has been adequately tested.

Under the various projects to be pursued by the FSD, such as the I\IRMP, FSDP, FORUIVI, and others, it is expected that the formation and normalisation of CFCs will become an integral part of the projects. The main processes that are to be followed in order to form and operate the CFCs have been outlined under these guidelines. The guidelines are for the benefit of policy makers, field officers, the DAs, communities, and other stakeholders.

As with guidelines on an emerging area such as community forestry, it is reckoned that as and when new and better information is received on community forest management structures the guidelines would be appropriately reviewed.

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Guidelines on Community Forest Nurseries: Project Directorate

INTRODUCTION

Ghana has been well endowed with natural forests, which have provided immense benefits economically and environmentally. At the beginning of the twentieth century forests covered up to 8.4 million hectares but these have been reduced to 1.8 million hectares as at the end of 1990 and are even reducing further. The bulk of the remaining forests are in the form of permanent forest estates managed by national agencies. The extent and spread of the permanent forest estates is such that not all communities can benefit from them.

Deforestation has been mainly attributed to forest conversion for farming purposes and to a lesser degree timber exploitation, wildfire and urbanisation. Incidentally, the population of the country is ever increasing thus putting further pressure to convert forests into farms to produce food for the people. With modest improvements in the economy, Ghanaians are in need of more and better forest (timber and NTFPs) products and services. It is therefore imperative that tree planting and plantation establishment should be embarked upon to augment natural forests in meeting the increasing demand for forest products and services. Due to the scale of planting required and the benefits thereof, it is appropriate that state agencies as well as communities and private individuals take part in reforestation programmes. To do this there is the need to provide training to prospective tree planters.

The availability of seedlings forms the bedrock of every successful reforestation programme. Under the national tree planting programme seedlings were produced and supplied free of charge to tree planters as an incentive. In most cases, however, the lack of seedlings in quantities or the species desired coupled with transportation difficulties acted as serious bottlenecks to tree planting. The time has therefore come to involve communities in seedling production. Systems must therefore be devised to facilitate the running of community nurseries.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF COMMUNITY NURSERIES.

The main goal of managing a community nursery should therefore be geared towards the:

Improvement in the standard of living of the participants through production and sale of seedlings and availability of quality seedlings for productive forest plantations.

The objectives are

* Provision of suitable tree seedlings to interested tree-growers (including participants and corporate bodies) at the right time. * Provision of supplementary cash income through seedling sales. * Supply of seedlings at affordable prices to tree growers. * Creation of training opportunities for communities in tree seedling production and plantation forestry in general. * Provision of avenues for participants to utilise their spare time on a useful venture. * Creation of a forum amongst different stakeholders with common interest in reforestation to interact and improve upon delivery.

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Areas critical to the success of CFN - Principles and Actions A lot of community nurseries have sprung up in the high forest zone of the country but it is not very clear whether these nurseries are being managed efficiently and effectively, all seedling produced are of good quality and that the communities are deriving the necessary benefits from their efforts. To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the following areas must be critically examined and issues emanating from them addressed.

a. Technical Assistance: -Principle Participants in CFN tend to manage tree nurseries like nurseries for agricultural crops and neglect the fact that forest trees and their seeds are different from cocoa, palm fruit, etc.

Recommended actions: Provision of technical support to communities should be led by the Forest Services Division. Contributions should be made by other land use agencies, NGOs, and foreign concerns.

Participants should undergo training to enable them operate on their own under normal circumstances.

Well-trained and knowledgeable participants could train others in turn. Participants should seek expert technical advice whenever any problem is beyond their reach.

b. Ownership: Principle: Community nurseries are often located on lands owned by individuals or families. Benefits to the landowner are not in most cases stipulated at the beginning of the project and this often generates conflict. Ownership should be clear to all stakeholders to avoid conflicts on the land and products.

Recommended actions 1. Community nurseries should normally be owned by a specifically defined community or entity.

2 Ownership of the nursery must be separated from the land on which the nursery is sited.

3. The land must be acquired either by way of grant as in most cases or purchased where necessary.

4. Where the land has been granted there should be clear-cut guarantees from the grantor pertaining to the period of usage and access rights.

5. Whatever the case maybe there is the need to have written agreements that specify ownership rights, management and share of benefits.

c. Management.' -Principle: Community nurseries function well when there is a well-structured and respected management hierarchy. The involvement of various stakeholders in the management hierarchy ensures commitment, accountability and achievement of targets.

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Recommended actions 1. A governing body should be set up to take charge of major policy decisions concerning the CNs. The board should be made up of representatives from all relevant stakeholders connected with forests and land use within the community. Some form of democratic system should be adopted on the recruitment and retirement of the MS members.

2. The Community Forest Committees(CFCS), which are now being set in various parts of the country, are appropriate to play this role. It is expected that the CFCs should be linked up with the District Assemblies Environmental Sub Committees.

3. A leader (supervisor) must be appointed by the nursery participants from amongst themselves. The leader should act as such for a fixed period and he/she must be the link between the CFCs and the rest of the nursery participants. The nursery participants should be prepared to work under the leader and to obey his/her instructions.

4. Where a member persistently flouts governing rules, it should result in his or her expulsion.

d. Participants;­Principle: Membership should be open to all residents within the community irrespective of

tribe, sex, religion and age provided the participant is capable of manual work.

Recommended action 1. Participation should be on a purely voluntary basis.

2. Local CFCs are to draw up agreements with participants covering modalities on membership and expulsion.

3. The number of participants per nursery should be such that it will be convenient to effect efficient management taking into consideration availability of nursery space, toofs and equipment, technical supervision and so on.

4. Generally, it is advised that the number should not be more than 15 individuals per nursery. Where more individuals exhibit interest beyond a convenient number of participants, then new nurseries can be set up to absorb the excess number of participants.

5. As many nurseries as possible could be set up in a village provided the numbers of participants are justifiable.

e. Resources Principle: To manage a community nursery effectively and efficiently the nursery should be well resourced to ensure that seedlings are produced at a certain standard. Many communities may not have the resources needed to start a forest nursery.

Recommended action 1. The following tools and equipment should be available at the nurseries to help them produce good quality seedlings. Watering cans, wheelbarrow, cutlasses, hand trowel, shovel, hoes, mattocks, fork spade pick axe rake water tank in areas where there is no permanent source of water, wire and rakes.

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2. All tools and equipment should be well kept at the nursery site in a toolbox or under a nursery shed

3 Nurseries should be fenced where necessary to avoid destruction by animals and people

e. Livelihoods: Principle: A source of livelihood apart from farming is always ideal for people in the communities as a form of support whilst they wait for the proceeds from their main farming activities.

Recommended Action Proceeds from the sale of seedlings must go to the nursery participants less any amount that is set aside for the nursery's maintenance and capital equipment. The amounts set aside must be agreed upon between the CFC and the participants. Provisional budgets must be prepared

Apart from the seedling production, participants should explore other livelihood ventures such as snail and mushroom farming, apiculture and vegetable growing. Participants could go further than merely coming together to engage in seedling production. They could form an association to access credit facilities themselves. Financial institutions are normally interested in offering credit to such well-organised associations.

f. Sale of Seedlings: -Principle: The sustainability of the nurseries depend on their ability to sell seedlings at economic prices.

Recommended Actions: 1. CFCs in conjunction with participants are to fix the price of seedlings at the beginning of each year based on technical advice from Forestry Department personnel. This is to allow potential buyers to make adequate budgetary provision for purchases. Prices should reflect prevailing market conditions of seedlings and the peculiar circumstances of the locality. It should be reasonably low enough as to encourage buyers to embrace plantation development while also moderate enough as to lead to cost recovery with a little extra as profit. Depending on circumstances, prices can be reviewed from time to time by the FC and the participants at a meeting comprising not less than two-thirds from both sides.

2. Some targeted markets for the seedlings are: Tree planters in the community. Concessionaires Forest Services Division Plantation Investors District Assemblies Environmental Projects etc.

3. To assist such CNs to survive government policy should encourage the purchase of seedlings from CNs in order to provide them with some income. Other bodies involved in reforestation can adopt similar policies.

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g. Income Distribution: -Proceeds from the sale of seedlings must go to the nursery participants less any amount that is set aside for the nursery maintenance and capital equipment , The amount set aside must be agreed upon between the CFCs and the participants, Provisional budgets must be prepared,

h. Funding and Profit share Principle Starting such communal ventures is normally difficult because though the communities may be willing to start a nursery they may not have the required capital income to start.

Recommended action 1. Initial funding should be secured from the following sources, Government grant Foreign donors Donations from traditional leaders and others. District Assemblies Common or Poverty Alleviation Funds Participants' contributions Timber Concessionaires

2. Over the long term, however, participants should be able to raise enough seedlings both for their tree growing needs and for sale to prospective tree growers. The revenue from the sales should be adequate to cover the running and maintenance of the nurseries with a little profit margin.

To ensure sustainability the nurseries should be able to be run from income derived from the sale of seedlings and other sources of regular income.

Profits obtained should be shared amongst the participants after satisfying other obligations as proposed below.

Recipient/Item Profit Share (%)

1. Management (Board) 10 2. Revolving Fund 24

i 3. Participants 66 Total 100

i .. Nursery Operations In terms of nursery operations, it is expected that they should conform to the normal Forestry Department's practices. Manuals for running nurseries are available as a guide to the governing bodies and participants. The following, however, offers some insight to the anticipated nursery operations.

Types of Nursery: - Two types of nurseries normally set up to produce seedlings are permanent and flying nurseries. Flying nurseries are probably what the communities should set up. They should be adequate for the seedling requirement of the communities. The overhead costs are higher but management is less complex and can be sited close to proposed planting sites to eliminate and reduce transport costs.

Type of Seedlings: - Demand surveys should be conducted by the participants to ascertain the prospective demand of customers while taking into consideration

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participant's own demands. This should be done well ahead of time (October to December). Seedlings raised should be of the right quality, quantity, and species.

Timing of Operations: - Nursery operations should be effected in harmony with the seasons. Operations should be timed in such a way as to have the seedlings ready for transplanting by the beginning of the planting season.

Scale of operation: This should be large enough to make the whole scheme economically viable. For a nursery to be profitable it should have the maximum number of quality seedlings.

For Bare root seedlings, 100 seedlings per every square meter should be planted . An additional 20% of the land should be added to the figure calculated for the nursery beds to provide space for alleys, work areas. Etc.

When containers are used 150 - 200 containers per square meter is ideal. The minimum size for a community nursery should vary from place to place depending on demand for seedlings, availability of land, resources and the required number of people and

Conclusion In conclusion, it must be mentioned that many more ideas could be obtained towards the setting up of the eNs and it is expected that improvements will be effected once they start functioning. It is the desire of all that they shall become so successful that they will soon become part of the nation's reforestation programme.

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Guidelines for Optimising Community Involvement in tree Regeneration: Project Directorate

Background Ghana's policy on forest conservation and development has shifted considerably over the last six years or so. The previous strategy was to consolidate and manage parcels of forestlands designated as forest reserves secured in strategic locations around the country, whilst stretching the use of off reserve timber resources to the longest possible time within the constraints of competing land uses,

At present, however, the policy is to manage both the on and off reserve forest resources on a sustainable basis. This means timber harvesting off reserve, has to be regulated more scientifically whilst ways should be quickly found to enhance appropriate regeneration of timber and potential timber species on lands that are otherwise earmarked for agriculture and other purposes. The complexity of this task underscored a need for the Forest Service Division to initiate studies to learn and develop practices and systems that could be used to pursue the policy objectives of off reserve forest management. One of these key studies is the ITTO funded project known as Piloting Initiatives of Collaborative Forest Management off Reserve in Southern Ghana.

Among the principal objectives of this project was the identification of proposals for actions that will promote adequate tree regeneration in off reserve areas. The project therefore conducted a number of surveys on the socio-economic, present and potential timber resources and also studied reports prepared on other dimensions of forest management in off reserve areas. The practical process of tree planting by individual members of several communities with different and sometimes contrasting timber resources was also tested. The lessons that were learnt from the process have been compiled into a format that will serve as guidelines for all stakeholders especially The Forest Service in their attempt to secure adequate timber species regeneration on farmlands and other similar places. Whilst these guidelines do not exhaust all the issues bordering on tree planting and other regeneration options, they offer the forest manager an opportunity to view the process of forest regeneration from a wider socio-economic and ecological perspective. They also stimulate thinking and call attention to issues that are likely to be glossed over but which nevertheless, can seriously influence the results of any forestry development program.

Forest regeneration strategies Three basic options are identified for the successful tree and forest regeneration in the off-reserve areas of the high forest zone. A well-known and widely practiced strategy is to reforest degraded areas based on conventional plantation forestry. The forest so created can be either a large industrial plantation or a small to medium sized wood lot. A second option is the integration of forestry into agricultural land use systems. Agroforestry as this system has come to be known can be based on nurturing naturally regenerated tree seedlings or actual tree planting. The potential for this practice is enormous as many of the agricultural crops in the high forest zone combine we" with forest trees in mixtures. Within the farmland mosaic are found a few patches of remnant forests, most of which are fully protected and therefore unavailable for timber harvesting. There are however, a few remnant forests that are allowed to be exploited for timber. The introduction of silvicultural treatments in such forests to speed up the natural regeneration process will constitute the third strategy of forest regeneration off reserve.

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Each of these options will present its own peculiar challenges and opportunities but the important thing is the forestry or agricultural extension agent's ability to diagnose each locality's resources and needs and consequently design an appropriate regeneration strategy.

Principles and actions Before an acceptable level of performance and achievement can be obtained in timber regeneration outside the permanent forest reserves, certain paramount issues must be adequately addressed. These issues stem from many spheres of life including policy and legislation, as well as the social, cultural, economic and the physical environment. Others are technological considerations, management aspects, extension and inputs, biodiversity conservation and forest protection. Some observations known in this document as principles are derived from the above identified areas critical to the successful regeneration of forests. Under these principles, actions, which are needed to promote adequate tree regeneration, are recommended.

Policy and legislation Principle 1 The present definition of planted trees discriminates against certain regeneration strategies, which have a high potential for restocking off reserve areas.

Recommended action 1 Define planted trees to include both artificial planting and tending of naturally regenerated trees on farms. Differentiate between regeneration efforts of small-scale farmers and the commercial tree-planting programme of the Ministry of Lands and Forestry. Secure commensurate incentives for those nurturing naturally regenerated timber trees on farmlands.

Principle 2 The economic value of land is not uniform throughout the forest zone of Ghana. Recommended action 2 Benefits to landowners must be worked out based on local circumstances.

Principle 3 Due to the long gestation period, tree planting in areas with complicated land tenure systems will be very discouraging. Access to new lands may be difficult whilst conversion of land initially intended for agriculture to plantation development may require re-negotiations.

Recommended action 3 Forest Division, NGOs and other interested groups should play a facilitating role in land negotiation Agreements must be documented in lieu of the long rotation period.

Principle 4 The establishment of commercial plantations could result in unbalanced use of land where most of the rural people are farmers. Poor farmers with insecure title to lands can lose them to commercial tree planters. The enthusiasm in tree planting could reduce land traditionally available to agriculture in the form of fallow lands thus further threatening the sustenance of the bush fallow system.

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Recommended action 4 In each district or sub district identify, available land for tree plantation development. Indicate how much land is available exclusively for plantation development (surplus agricultural land). Encourage integrated tree planting with agricultural crops especially systems that combine trees and crops permanently.

Principle 5 World wide there is a general trend away from government development and ownership of forest plantations. Private plantation owners may therefore become an important lobbying group in future.

Recommended action 5 Encourage broad based participation in order to avoid skewing of policy to favour a few but influential minority.

Principle 6 The control of timber exploitation alone is· not enough to secure sustainable timber production. The recent forest policy emphasizes tree planting as an important aspect of sustainable forest management.

Recommended action 6 Ensure that adequate resources and time are devoted to tree regeneration activities Ensure that timber contractors comply with the government's directive of developing plantations as a condition for felling rights.

Principle 7 Tree planting has a mUlti-dimensional effect.

Recommended action 7 Use plantation development to meet economic, social and environment policy objectives of some of the District Assemblies. District assemblies should use part of its royalties to support tree planting.

Principle 8 Outside the forest reserves, cocoa farms are the second most important source of timber after natural forest remnants. At present there is a negative incentive for cocoa farmers to keep timber shade trees as opposed to non-timber shade trees. Direct cocoa damage and yield loss compensation are not enough incentive to retain timber trees on farms. Farmers have the choice to select several useful non-timber shade trees.

Recommended action 8 Develop and introduce fair tree tending payments based on a percentage of the stumpage. This may serve as incentive for deliberate tree retention. Consider that removal of shade trees results in physiological stress and subsequent reduction in the productive life of the cocoa trees. Base tree tending incentive on the price of a healthy timber tree and not on the extra cost incurred by maintaining timber trees among cocoa crops.

Principle 9 Timber contractors have traditionally bullied cocoa farmers whilst until the inception of the Interim Measures the Forest Division remained indifferent to the plight of the farmers.

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Recommended action 9 Develop strong support for farmer rights Provide information to farmers on both their legal rights and channels for pursuing these rights.

Principle 10 Plantation development can only thrive in the presence of a suitable forest policy and tree tenure system.

Recommended action 10 Review tree tenure and bring it in line with modern realities. Tenure should reflect the state of land degradation and the ability of trees to restore soil productivity.

Social environment Principle 11 Plantation developers may become valuable resource owners and very influential in future. Locals may antagonise plantation owners. Communities may make several up-front demands on plantation developers.

Recommended action 11 Encourage local participation in plantation development. Ensure small-scale holders are not marginalized.

Principle 12 Resources available to many rural people may not permit their involvement in tree planting and ownership

Recommended action 12 Encourage community plantations alongside individual private tree planting and ownership. Communal ownership should be designed particularly to cater for poorly resourced people.

Principle 13 Since the devastating fires of 1983 only few traditional authorities are able to generate direct incomes. Traditional councils and stool occupants could create resources for direct income by investing in plantations. The plantations so established can be a demonstration of a chief's commitment to the welfare of the stool he occupies.

Recommended action 13 Encourage the active involvement of traditional heads in forest plantation projects. Encourage traditional heads and landowners to use land as equity in plantation development.

Principle 14 Forest regeneration through plantation development will enhance local incomes, development of infrastructure and decline in urban drift.

Recommended action 14 Integrate plantation development into district economic development programmes.

Principle 15 Most farmers and rural people have no social security

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Recommended action 15 Use forest plantations as social security, and trees to increase the value of agricultural holdings.

Economics and Marketing Principle 16 The long rotation of forest plantations delays returns on investments. Land as a capital may not be available for long-term commitment. Commercial interest rates make forestry unprofitable

Recommended action 16 Provide economic incentives in the form of low interest loans and grants to sustain interest in tree planting. Integrate tree planting into agricultural systems for the realisation of early income

Principle 17 Loans and grants cannot be easily assessed by small holders

Recommended action 17 Package assistance meant for small holders in the form of free inputs, extension and consultant services. Group individuals into co-operative societies for the purpose of disbursing loans etc.

Principle 18 There is lack of economic data to demonstrate the full benefits of various kinds of plantings and products. The Forest Service Division's prices of plantation grown timber casts doubt on the profitability of tree growing in Ghana.

Recommended action 18 Conduct research on the economics of plantation forestry in Ghana. Review and charge market prices for plantation grown timber Develop markets for immature plantations and early thinning Explore the possibility of accessing the carbon sequestration market

Principle 19 Non-restrictions on export of plantation grown timber and general increase in wood demand both locally and internationally hold good prospects for marketing. Timber prices may be more stable than many traditionally exported commodities.

Recommended action 19 Maximise plantation establishment by making use of all surplus agricultural lands as well as marginal lands unsuitable for arable crops.

Principle 20 Risks and uncertainties abound in reforestation investments

Recommended action 20 Keep decisions that are not supported by facts and have little flexibility of review to the minimum. Decisions on choice of species and objects of management are to be professionally guided

Principle 21 Cost of plantation establishment is cheaper in Ghana than in most parts of the world with long tradition of tree growing.

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Recommended action 21 Maximise the production of big size and high quality timber from plantations Adopt intensive management practices e.g. pruning, thinning and protection to guarantee quality product

Silvicultural Considerations Principle 22 A large number of plantations in developing countries are not suitable for commercial wood production because of low productivity, poor management and unguided planting material, species and site selection. There may be substantial differences in economic benefits due to appropriate use of species, provenance selection and

Silvicultural Regimes. Recommended action 22 Select species with well-known Silvicultural characteristics and good returns, preferably those approved by an appropriate forest authority. Source seeds from only selected provenance and mother trees Plant species in sites approved by a competent forest officer

Principle 23 Planters will need guidance in many aspects of tree establishment and management. Preparation of planting material and spacing are most critical.

Recommended action 23 Include training in all forest regeneration activities.

Principle 24 Less productive lands are likely to be made available for plantation establishment

Recommended action 24 Use healthy planting materials and adopt good cultural practices Develop planting schedules for each forest district

Principle 25 Maintenance of planted trees is likely to be lacking. There is a tendency to copy the maintenance attitude of the Forest Service Division

Recommended action 25 Integrate agricultural crops into forest plantations during the establishment phase Develop maintenance schedule for each plantation Emphasise the importance of pruning and thinning in plantation productivity The Forestry Commission should establish model plantations in strategic locations

Principle 26 There is lack of information on appropriate species, spacing and combination with other land uses on permanent basis.

Recommended action 26 Identify the technology and species appropriate for planting timber trees among agricultural crops. Demonstrate the ecological and economic benefits of such combinations.

Principle 27 The selection and nurturing of natural regeneration to timber size trees is not well studied Many farmers have difficulty in identifying seedlings of timber species. The

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future of natural regeneration on arable lands cannot be guaranteed as subsequent land preparation involves the removal of these trees before their maturity and use as timber.

Recommended action 27 Study and develop the technology for raising timber trees within short rotation agricultural systems. Publish a manual on timber tree seedlings identification

Principle 28 Species routinely grown in plantations in Ghana have lightwood not particularly suitable for construction and other load bearing activities. The long-term availability of heavy wood in off reserve areas may depend on nurturing of natural regeneration on farms.

Recommended action 28 Along side the routine species, encourage the planting of the few indigenous species e.g, kusia, emeri and ofram useful for constructional purposes.

Forest Protection

Principle 29 Fire is the most important single threat to the successful development of plantations in Ghana.

Recommended action 29 Fires must be actively managed to ensure the survival and development of forest plantations

Principle 30 A fire management plan is a prerequisite for effective prevention, suppression and mitigation of effects of fire

Recommended action 30 Management plans for plantations located in fire risk areas must include a section on fire management.

Principle 31 Front line staffs who will be facilitating the establishment and management of plantations do not possess the requisite knowledge to deal with the threat of fire.

Recommended action 31 Train extension/front line staff in fire threat analysis and preventive measures.

Principle 32 Wild land fires are essentially caused by the activities of the local population. Fire prevention must receive the co-operation and understanding of the local community.

Recommended action 32 Encourage the participation of rural people in fire prevention work such as early burning, educational campaign etc. Stimulate and sustain people's interest in fire prevention through the provision of incentives to fire volunteer brigades and reward groups that succeed in preventing fires over a number of fire seasons.

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FSD should conduct further research into bush fires.

Principle 33 In most districts community fire volunteers are not adequately trained or resourced to deal with fire prevention and control. Central government inputs are not likely to contribute significantly towards the needs of the volunteers.

Recommended action 33 In districts where plantation forests become important land use, fire volunteers must be properly trained and equipped to carry out campaigns and handle fire emergencies. Seek assistance from local sources to equip volunteers

Principle 34 Protection of forest trees against insects and diseases is not well developed in Ghana. The cost of applying pesticides on large stretches of forest may be prohibitive. Forest protection strategy so far, has been to plant species with minimal susceptibility to pests and diseases. Most of the high valued indigenous timber species are highly vulnerable to insect attack if grown in plantations.

Recommended action 34 Plant species known to have little susceptibility to pests and diseases. The use of indigenous species must be done with care Intensify research on forest entomology and pathology.

Biodiversity

Principle 35 Forest regeneration must not simply address the objective of meeting wood demands. It must lead to significant enhancement of the environment. Many communities and individuals place a higher premium on the environmental role of trees than on timber. Recommended action 35 Forest regeneration plans must include strategies to ensure acceptable levels of environmental protection.

Principle 36 Rehabilitation of environmentally sensitive sites like stream courses and swampy areas is required in many localities. Tree planting using the routine plantation species in Ghana will not be appropriate in this case. Recommended action 36 Identify and propagate species appropriate for environmental planting.

Principle 37 Only few species are routinely grown in plantations in Ghana. Planting trees in mixtures offer a higher biological diversity but may appeal only to small-scale planters. Naturally regenerated trees on farms can ensure biodiversity conservation.

Recommended action 37 Expand the base for plantation grown species to include more Ghanaian indigenous species Determine the combination of species that can grow successfully in mixtures and promote its use among small-scale tree growers.

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Study and provide guidelines for selection and protection of naturally regenerated seedlings on farmers' fields.

Principle 38 The biodiversity in heavily degraded lands can be improved through conventional forest plantations. The use of indigenous species is just an added benefit. Plant diversity in forest plantations increase significantly after the final thinning for long rotation forests. Forest fires may have more .serious effect on biodiversity conservation than species choice and planting patterns in plantations.

Recommended action 38 Encourage tree establishment in whatever form on heavily degraded sites. Develop and maintain thinning schedules for planted forests. Carry out active forest fire protection throughout the rotation. Extension and inputs

Principle 39 There is still insufficient farmer or industrial confidence in tree planting in Ghana. Recent developments in forest policy and consequent initiatives are largely confined to forestry circles. Information for farmers is essential both for their legal rights and on the value of the trees being planted.

Recommended action 39 Strengthen and speed up the extension programme of the Forest Service. Encourage and standardise the extension programmes of NGOs. Explain recent developments in forest policy, remove misconceptions about tree planting and outline the opportunities and potentials in plantation projects.

Principle 40 A prerequisite for successful programme is the availability of inputs especially quality seedlings. Seedlings will be more efficiently produced by specialised individuals and groups rather than by tree planters. Recommended action 40 Encourage the establishment of well-managed forest nurseries throughout the forest zone.

Conclusion Forest regeneration must occur in a context that does not appear to dramatically change the relations between rural settlers and their physical or socio-economic environment. Instead it must fit into the development programme for improving local livelihood systems.

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Guidelines on Community Involvement in Forest Exploitation: Project Directorate

1.0 INTRODUTION

I ' Ghana abounds in a lot of forest resources, which contribute to the growth of the economy. Timber for instance, now ranks as the fourth foreign exchange

I I earner after gold, tourism and cocoa. Aside this, the timber industry provides jobs to a considerable number of people. Unfortunately, the timber resource is diminishing at an alarming rate. This is attributable to factors such as unsound farming practices, intensive and unsustainable logging, indiscriminate wildfires, and high demand for wood for both local construction and export.

Timber from off-reserve areas contributes 0.5 million cubic meters of the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) of 1 million cubic meters, while the capacity of the industry is about 3.7 million cubic meters. This implies that demand for timber for industrial and domestic use far exceeds the supply. The excessive demand for timber has thus led to series of illegal timber operations. As an intervention Military Task Forces were formed to assist staff of the Forest Services Division in halting illegal operations. It appears little has been achieved. There was also a change in policy, which placed the control of timber harvesting in off-reserve areas under the remit of FSD. Again, the control of off-reserve timber by the introduction of District quotas has been unable to solve the problem.

The purpose of the guidelines is to look at the role local communities can play to ensure sustainable timber harvesting in off-reserve areas.

2.0 PRINCIPLES AND RECOMMENDED ACTIONS To ensure effective involvement of the local communities in controlling timber harvesting identified issues termed principles have been developed. These are supported with recommended actions to be followed in order to attain the stated goa\.

2.1 Identification of TUC Areas Timber Utilization Contracts (TU Cs) are put in place under the Timber Resources Management Act, 1997 Act 549 to replace the Concession or Lease system for timber harvesting. This is to ensure that the grant of timber rights will be in a manner that secures the sustainable management and utilization of the timber resources.

Principle 1 During the TUC identification process there should be consultation with the landowners, caretaker chiefs, alienation holders, representatives of the District Assemblies and the Traditional council. Their consent and endorsement are sought before an advertisement could be made. Hardly do they consult the farmer who actually tills the land and this acts as a disincentive. The consultation also comes too late in the TUC award process.

Recommended Action The consultation should be broadened to include the actual farmers who cultivate the land, other stakeholders and Community Forest Committees (CFCs).

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The consultation should start at the time of undertaking reconnaissance surveys. Throughout the process there should be transparency and adequate publicity.

2.2 Social Responsibility Agreement (SRA) Regulation (L 1.1649) requires that under the TUC system there should be a Social Responsibility Agreement (SRA) to assist the inhabitants within the contract area with such amenities as shall be specified in the agreement. This should be at a cost of not more than 5% of the annual royalty accruing from the operations under the TUC.

Recommended Action District Managers should be made to provide communities with estimates the volume of harvestable trees, which is equivalent to 5% of the royalties.

Principle 3 Benefits accruing to communities are in most cases not properly accounted for: This can defeat the objectives of the SRA.

Recommended Action To ensure transparency it is recommended that the District Assemblies and Traditional Authorities should properly document and account for all receipts from the contractors. Projects should be implemented according to the communities' laid down procedures.

Principle 4 The conduct of the contractor and his staff in the course of their operations is a source of conflict with the community.

Recommended Action Contractors should strictly follow provisions in the Logging Manual (Le. courtesy to the people, respect cultural norms such as taboo days. Non­disruption of agricultural activities etc.)

Principle 5 Once the Contractor fulfils his part of the arrangement under the SRA communities should reciprocate by protecting the timber resources.

Recommended Action Communities should assist in preventing illegal timber operations Communities must check the spread of wildfires. The Contractor's operations should not be impaired.

Principle 6 A radical shift from the old informal arrangement to SRA is the creation of new opportunities such as employment, which leads to improvement in the Socio-economic conditions of the local communities.

Recommended Action Communities should avail themselves of the provisions of the SRA in terms of

Scholarships Livelihoods Access to off-cuts

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Supply of lumber for local use.

2.3 Land Use The present land use in Southern Ghana will have several implications for resource exploitation, some of which can create conflict. In off-reserve areas of Ghana the primary land use is agriculture.

Principle 7 Conflicts between timber harvesting and agriculture are detrimental to sustainable management of timber resources.

Recommended Action Communities should be well motivated to see exploitation as a normal land use. Timber harvesting should be planned with the community representatives in such a way as to cause minimum disturbances to crop farms.

Principle 8 Given the right incentives a majority of farmers are willing to nurture and protect trees. Incentives for forest management can best be provided if linked to timber exploitation.

Recommended Action -The farmers who actually till and protect the trees should have a fair share of the timber royalties.

Contractors should be made to provide farmers with lumber for domestic use.

2.4 Logging Operational Plan A 5-year operational plan for off reserve is prepared by the contractor and submitted as part of the application for a TUC. This may have to be amended, having gone through the evaluation process.

In addition the TUC holder is to prepare his annual logging plan which will need the approval of FSD prior to timber harvesting.

Principle 9 Contractors are not obliged to show these plans to the local communities. If the communities have access to these plans it will improve their understanding and relations with the contractors.

Recommended Action Since these documents provide vital information against which the contractors' performance could be assessed, their preparation should be made compulsory or else the contractors should not be allowed to commence operation. The plans should be made accessible to the communities.

2.5 Pre-felling Inspection

A pre-felling inspection is required before yield is given out to carry out harvesting. Prior to this contractors are expected to identify trees they wish to fell and mark them with a band of red paint. This is to ensure easy identification of the trees. The applicant then provides FSD with information on trees identified and request for a pre-felling inspection to be undertaken.

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Principle 10 Contractors hardly mark the trees identified. Some Contractors do not even undertake this exercise. It is also difficult to get the representatives of the communities and the farmers to participate.

Recommended Action Contractors who refuse to undertake this exercise should be denied the permit. The participation of the representatives of the communities and the farmer should be a pre-requisite. Landowners and other stakeholders must take active interest to ensure that the right procedure is followed.

2.6 Logging Roads Many serious environmental effects are caused by bad road alignment and design. Generally speaking, roads, which are well designed from an environmental standpoint, are also cheaper to build and to maintain.

Principle 11 Most often Contractors construct logging roads in off-reserve areas through farms thereby causing a lot of damage to crops. This happens because the farmers or community representatives are not consulted in the design and the end result is conflict generation.

Recommended Action the people must be consulted during road alignment in order to reduce conflicts. Roads should be aligned and constructed to standards that permit the most economical movement of machinery and do not promote erosion or undue concentration of drainage water Bridges and culverts on roods should be designed, taking into account a predictable flood recurrent interval. Alignment through environmentally sensitive areas such as swamps and sacred groves should be avoided. Roads should be serviceable after extraction of logs so that communities can make use of them.

2.7 Harvesting Systems Harvesting is one of the greatest causes of environmental changes. Careful planning and consultation with interested parties are essential before the operation begins.

Principle 12 Sometimes harvesting is done without consulting the farmers on whose farms the trees are and this results in conflicts. Felling is not done selectively but based on availability of trees, which is in conflict with sustainable timber harvesting. Felling is done anyhow, resulting in considerable damage to crops.

Recommended Action Consult with the community and farmers in particular to obtain their consent before harvesting since it is an offence to fell trees against the wishes of the farmer. . Avoid clear felling in favour of selective felling.

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Practice directional felling and fell as close to the ground as possible Fell into tract openings to reduce crop damage.

Principle 13 Logs especially from off-reserve areas are not properly marked and this makes their tracking difficult. This is usually done by illegal operators.

Recommended Action Ensure that every log is marked with;

the species code locality mark contractor's tree number which is a sequential number beginning with 1, being the first tree felled since registration of the Contractor's property mark the log number which is the number of the log cut from the tree; log number 1 being the butt log and the contractor's property mark.

Principle 14 Log yards constructed are usually bigger than the recommended size of % of a hectare. Topsoil is not replaced after use and there is no provision of drainage structures.

Recommended Action Log yards must be kept as small as practicable and should not be more than one quarter of a hectare in area. Topsoil are to be put back after the operation. Log yards must be provided with drainage structures that prevent run-off onto roads or towards streams. They should be scarified prior to use. After logging operations have been completed the area should be deep ripped, topsoil replaced, desirable natural trees planted and drainage structures maintained.

2.8 Compensation to Farmers This is the amount paid to farmers for crop damage during timber operations on their farms.

Principle 15 By and large compensation paid to farmers for crop damage is either inadequate or not paid at all. Such a practice is a disincentive to farmers, some of whom deliberately destroy the trees by setting fire or slashing down potential saplings even before the contractors get to them.

Recommended Action Fixing of compensation should be based on current realities Farmers must be given sufficient incentive to leave trees on their farms Contractors who refuse to pay compensation promptly should not be allowed to continue with their operations.

2.9 Logging Residue This entails off-cuts, rejected logs, branches and other parts of fell tree usually left in the bush during timber operations to get rotten.

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Principle 16 A good proportion of timber is left in the bush to go waste. Contractors refuse to remove crooked and slightly defective logs. Regulation requires that where logs are left in the bush to go waste or logs have been abandoned a penalty of ten (10) times the current maximum royalty for that species be charged.

Recommended Action Millers must be encouraged to make use of residue Local communities should be given the option to utilize off-cuts and rejects for a livelihood. The tree volume used to calculate stumpage should cover every utilizable wood including the stump and bigger branches instead of the utilizable bole Enforce regulations on abandoned logs.

2.10 Monitoring Monitoring is carried out to gather information in order to assess performance and where necessary to modify practice. FSD staffs are responsible for monitoring of harvesting practices and drawing to the attention of the Contractor any unacceptable methods.

Principle 17 Local communities are normally not involved in monitoring since they see it as the responsibility of the Forest Services Division.

Recommended Action As spelt out in the Forest and Wildlife Policy of 1994, there should be collaboration with the local people in forest management. The entire community should therefore be encouraged to be vigilant and assist FSD so that illegal operations are eliminated. Everyone has the right to ask a contractor working on their land to produce a permit and to check that drivers have been issued with a Conveyance Certificate. The local communities should be encouraged to insist on their rights.

2.11 Illegal Timber Felling Due to high rate of rural unemployment most of the rural dwellers have taken to illegal timber exploitation for their livelihood.

Principle 18 Illegal Contractors refuse to obtain permits or seek the consent of farmers before embarking on their operations. Local communities sometimes connive with them or show apathy. Lack of job opportunities compels some rural folks to take to illegal timber operations.

Recommended Action Viable cottage industries should be identified and harnessed to provide rural livelihood opportunities. Community forest communities (CFCs) and other concerned groups should be empowered to assist FSD to control illegal exploitation of timber. There should be more education on the importance of conserving trees.

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CONCLUSION The control of timber harvesting outside forest reserves has been a difficult task for the Forest Services Division. This has resulted in fast depletion of timber in these areas. The best bet of resolving the situation appears to be the involvement of the local communities in the management of forest resources in off-reserve areas.

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PART FOUR: WORKING GROUP DISCUSSIONS

AND QUESTIONS

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PART FOUR: WORKING GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND QUESTIONS

Mercy Boafo and Wallace Koomson presented a recap of the first day's presentations and discussions. Working group discussions on the guidelines followed this. Five working groups were formed to discuss one of the following

Community representation in forest management Guidelines on community forest nurseries Guidelines for optirnising community involvement in regeneration of trees and forests in off-reserve forest areas in southern Ghana. Guidelines on community exploitation in timber resources The way forward

Community Representation in Forest Management The CFCs should have a membership of 7-11 comprising the following

a Chairman . a Vice a Secretary a Treasurer a Organisation secretary

The tenure of office for CFC executive members should be 4 years after which an election will be held to vote new people into the position. A former executive member can be re-elected as long as he is capable of working.

CFCs should operate and work at the village or community level until they are well established before expansion into the District, Regional and other higher levels.

Functions a Involved in forest policy formulation a Forest management planning a Execution of forest operations etc. a Publicising the CFCs a Public awareness through chiefs a Public lecturers and seminar a Mounting of barriers a Maintaining constant interaction a Members of CFCs to meet once in a year a Executive to meet community once a quarter·

Training Forest Services Division should formally train CFCs on technical forestry issues, laws and regulations.

CFCs should have a wider recognition, absorbed as a wing of FSD and a legal backing.

There should be law and administrative directives and procedure to support CFCs.

Code of conduct a CFC activities should be transparent a CFCs should be accountable to community and FSD every three months a CFC executive should be able to write by-law and sanction; a CFCs need motivation from FSD a FSD to motivate CFCs 30% incentives from confiscated lumber/timber

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Discussions

Questions Community Rep 1 : Please explain why government officials who are members of the CFCs cannot vote Community Rep 2

Forest Services Division Rep 1

Timber Industry rep1

Community Rep 3:

FSD Rep 2:

Timber Industry Rep 1

DCE

Community Rep 4

Community Rep 5

Responsel Comments Government officials in the CFCs are co-opted members who are to ensure that your activities are carried out as specified

Timber contractors used to fight with us. Some of them even use chainsaw to cut us. With the new legislation that says timber belongs to us, we are now motivated to plant trees so it is important that we join hands together to manage our forests.

CFCs should work at the community level for sometime before it is expanded to the district, regional and national level. We need to define and explain the roles and responsibilities of the CFCs very well so that they understand and know their limits. I think their major role is to help protect the forests but not to fight with timber contractors.

CFCs should report to higher authorities on issues beyond their control. It is best to prevent illegal felling of timber in the first place rather than to think about the 30% benefit to the person who reports it. The returns and benefits from prevention will be more than checking after illegal operations has been performed. We timber contractors started planting trees a long time ago. But we don't even talk about it. Local communities should relate nicely to timber contractors because we are prepared to help whenever you approach us since we are all working towards the good will of the forest. CFCs should not be a power block. There should be limits to their roles and responsibilities in forest management. Find out how best CFCs can be integrated to other Environmental management committees.

CFCs need a legal backing to encourage and help them to undertake their activities.

An additional role for CFCs should be to help FSD in identifying indigenous seedlings for tending and protection.

Community Involvement in Nursery Management

o Goals and objectives of community forest nurseries o Ownership of nurseries should be clear in order to avoid conflicts.

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o Funding and profit share o Management of nurseries should be the responsibility of the CFCs o Nursery materials and resources should be made available on time and

before nurseries are established o FSD should help us in selling seedlings and in distribution of profits from

nurseries o FSD should provide us with the necessary technical assistance in nursery

operation

Discussions Questions Community Rep 1:

Community Rep 2:

Response/Comments Community nursery management can be integrated with other forestry related activities.

FSD should demarcate degraded portions of the forest to us for tree planting and forest rehabilitation

Community Involvement in Regeneration

o R. Action 1 : Delete statement 2. o Reaction 3: include stool lands Commission o Reaction 4: Through consultation of all relevant members of the society

during land negotiation o Reaction 7: District assembly to use part of timber royalties to support tree

planting o Forestry Commission to promote the establishment of demonstration

plantation in strategic location o Reaction 32: Training of farmers on fire prevention and control methods

should be provided. Conduct further research to find out why fire still persists.

Discussions Questions Community Rep 1

Community Rep 2

Response/comments Naturally regenerated trees should be owned by farmers.

Issues on land for tree planting should be discussed and negotiated with the land commission

Community involvement in Exploitation

Principle 3 CFCs and unit committee to document and account for all receipt

Principle 4 CFCs to team up with District manager to ensure contractors follow logging manual procedures

Principle 8 Actual responsible farmers who till the land be given incentives and not royalties as stated.

Principle 10

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First recommendation should be deleted. Provision of incentives to participating teams in the community should be included in the recommendation.

Principle 15 Existing valuation rates for compensation are too low and should therefore be revised. Change compensation rates annually and let every person involved be aware of new rates Copies be made available to FSD/CFC

Discussions Questions Community Rep 1

Response/Comments Social Responsibility Agreements should be negotiated through the community Forestry committees

Community Rep 2 In terms of compensation, cocoa should be given a special value

The way forward

o CFC's should expand their education campaigns to other communities o CFCs should be more active and be seen to do what they are suppose to do o All farmers should be involved in forestry and tree planting activities o CFC's need more technical assistance from FSD o CFCs need legal backing and support from government o District Assemblies and Traditional authorities should give some of their share

of royalties for tree planting o Training of CFC on forestry activities, legislation and laws and operations o CFC needs legal backing o Provide uniforms o Restore 30% share of proceeds from ceased lumber o Rural dwellers should be allowed to saw boards for roofing o Regular reporting to government

Discussions Questions DCE

Response/Comments CFCs should be formed in all places/communities. Though they may face many problems, they should not be discouraged. Some of us DCE's are prepared to help them. They should always feel free to present their concerns and problems to us. Whenever the FSD fails to help we are prepared to help achieve sustainable management of our forests and natural resources.

The representative of the Offinsohene who chaired the second day's programme delivered the closing remark. He reminded participants of the issues that have been discussed and advised that every participant should use and implement these tools in their daily activities towards the sustainable management of the nation's forest resources.

Finally, a project directorate member thanked all participants on behalf of the directorate and bid everyone farewell.

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APPENDICES

Appendix i: Workshop Program

THEIVIE:"CONSOLlDATING OUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN COLLABORATIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT" Day 1 8:00 Registration Session 1 8:30-9:30 - Opening Ceremony - Introduction of Chairperson - Chairperson's Response

Welcome Address - Ashanti Regional Minister Address by Chief Executive, Forestry Commission

'The Role of the New Forestry Commission in FaCilitating Collaborative Forest Management'

- Keynote Address by Minister, MLF 'The Role of the Forest Sector in the Socio-Economic Development of Ghana' 9:30-10:00 Snack Session 2 10:00-11 :00 Summary of Achievements of the Project

-Chairman (Project Steering Committee) 11 :00-12:30 Summary of Achievements of the Project

-3 Community Representatives 12:30-1 :30 Lunch 1 :30-2:30 Community Representation in Forest Management 2:30-3:00 Discussion 3:00-4:00 Community Involvement in Regeneration and Nursery Management 4:00-4:30 Discussion 4:30-5:00 Community Involvement in Exploitation 5:30-6:00 Discussion Close of Day 1 Day 2 8:00 8:30-10:30

10:30-10:45 10:45-12:00

12:00-1 :00 1:00-1 :15 1 :15

Recap Working Group Discussions Group1 Community Representation in Forest Management Group2 Community Involvement in Forest Regeneration and

Nursery Management Group3 Community Involvement in Exploitation Snack Presentations and Discussions

The Way Forward Closing Remarks Lunch and Close

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