As it has been recently announced by Nii Osah Mills, the The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in Ghana, 80% of the timber used in the country is coming from illegal sources. As Mills added, this can only affect the progress of the sector, according to Ghana Web.
He expressed his dissatisfaction toward the actions of chainsaw operators in front of participants at a ‘voluntary partnership agreement’ (VPA) ceremony in Accra, on Wednesday. The ceremony took place in order for the Minister to reinforce the certification and licensing of timber in Ghana and was organized by the government and the EU.
The VPA was signed to make sure that Ghana only exports legal timber products to the EU and that it sells legal timber on its domestic market. But now, the illegal activities are taking over the timber trade and they also affect the image and actions of legal entities.
“The Ministry is working around the clock to see to it that the government would use only certified timber in its activities, otherwise it would not be accepted to be used in its projects. We are currently pushing such a policy through to Cabinet,” Mills announced.
The lack of logistics is the main reason for which the battle against illegal chainsaw operators can’t be fulfilled, as Nii Osah Mills explained. Also, these operators have weapons that are too strong for Ghana’s taskforces.
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