Stakeholders' workshop on forest certification ends

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A day's workshop aimed at enabling stakeholders to brainstorm on the Ghana Forest Management Certification Standard has ended at Akyawkrom in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality on Thursday.

It was organized under the auspices of the National Working Group (NWG) on Forest Certification and also sought to draw stakeholders' attention to the international trade requirements for plantation of timber.

Addressing the workshop, Dr Ernest Asare Abeney, Chairman of NWG stated that the certification standard was developed as the basis for assessing forest management of all types and sizes in Ghana.

Plantation forestry, he noted had become necessary and important means for meeting the growing national wood demand, whilst reducing the pressure on the natural forests as the only source of wood for both commercial and household uses.

He said the importance of using for instance, some modern fast growing species to reclaim mined out sites, reforestation of heavily degraded native forests or forests devastated by wildfires and other natural disasters, underpinned the relevance and growing interest of plantation development in Ghana.

Dr Abeney urged stakeholders, especially forest managers to work hard to sustain the trend by adhering to the certification standards in their operations.

This, he said, would help conserve the forests and biodiversity whilst reducing the burden on governmental agencies to monitor illegal trade in forest produce by allowing independent verifiers to place a seal on products coming from the forest.