chainsaw milling

The impact of tree tenure and access on chainsaw milling in Ghana

sbritwum — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:18:44 +0000

The impact of tree tenure and access on chainsaw milling in Ghana

Description

Chainsaw milling in Ghana has been banned and criminalized since 1998. However, the implementation of the ban has been very difficult and largely unsuccessful. One of the several reasons that have been identified to explain the continuation and expansion of the activity is the lack of clarity over forest and tree tenure, particularly tenure of trees on farms. This has resulted in strong support of some local communities for ‘illegal’ chainsaw operations. Even though forest and tree tenure and access rights have been identified as contributing to ‘illegal’ chainsawing, the connection between tenure and ‘illegal’ chainsawing has not been systematically assessed. The paper presents results from a study that sought to understand the extent to which tree tenure and access impact or influence chainsaw milling. Results of the study indicate that community resentment of the current system of timber tree tenure is a factor that facilitates the acceptance of chainsaw operators in the communities they operate. Indeed, the farmer plays an important role in facilitating access to timber trees by ‘illegal’ chainsaw operators. Enforcement of the ban on chainsaw lumber production and sale and the restrictive forest and tree tenure arrangement in Ghana are major factors that limit the accessibility of chainsaw operators to timber trees. The paper contends that forest management systems, which are deliberately designed to sustain and develop the value of forests for people living near them, will gain support for long-term, sustainable management. This will require security of access to forest resources, local incentives to protect the forest and its timber resources and the involvement of local communities in forest management.

sbritwum Mon, 05/30/2011 - 13:18

Responsible party

Forestry Research Institute of Ghana

Funding bodies

European Union

Attachment	Size
tree_tenure.pdf	213.69 KB

Forests and Forest-based Products for a Greener Future / Forests and Climate Change chainsaw milling / forest governance / forest and tree tenure / access rights / livelihoods

Socio-political constraints to the enforcement of forest laws: a case study of chainsaw operations in Ghana

sbritwum — Mon, 30 May 2011 17:54:47 +0000

Socio-political constraints to the enforcement of forest laws: a case study of chainsaw operations in Ghana

Description

Forest law enforcement is difficult in weak nations like Ghana in the face of conflicting interests and competing claims to forest resources. One area of interest in Ghana is the enforcement of a ban on chainsaw operation. Since 1998, chainsaw milling is legally prohibited in Ghana. However, today, there is enormous evidence to show that the practice is on the increase, exploiting about 2.5 million cubic meters of trees annually and employing about 100,000 people. This high level of illegality presents a big challenge to implementation of Ghana’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the European Union (EU) and also to Ghana’s REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)-plus agenda. The paper explores the socio-political constraints facing law enforcement agencies in enforcing the ban. It observes that high levels of rural unemployment, corruption among law enforcement agencies including the Forest Services Division (FSD) and the police, low political motivation and high elite influence in the forestry sector are some of the socio-political factors constraining effective enforcement. Notwithstanding, the practice seems to be well accepted and more than half of forestry officials at the operational level feel that the ban should be reviewed.

sbritwum Mon, 05/30/2011 - 12:54

Responsible party

Forestry Research Institute of Ghana

Funding bodies

European Union

Attachment	Size
forest_laws.pdf	1017.53 KB

Forests and Forest-based Products for a Greener Future / Forests and Climate Change forest governance / corruption / law enforcement / chainsaw milling / ghana

Estimating the number of jobs created by chainsaw activities in Ghana

sbritwum — Mon, 30 May 2011 17:37:04 +0000

Estimating the number of jobs created by chainsaw activities in Ghana

Description

Chainsaw milling, a practice of using chainsaw machines to process trees to lumber, has been banned in Ghana for over ten years by Act 547 and LI 1649. In spite of this, the activity has been going on posing a real challenge to forest monitoring and sustainable forest management in Ghana. In order to be able to fully understand the social and economic impact of any policy intervention to deal with the issue, there is the need for policy makers to have a clear understanding of the scope of the problem, in terms of the number of people involved. The paper makes a contribution to this need by reviewing the various studies that have attempted and gives a current estimation. The paper draws mainly on two main approaches based on volume of illegal harvest and actual market stock volume of chainsaw lumber to estimate the number of people who engaged in chainsaw milling. The paper estimates that chainsaw milling directly employs nearly 97,000 people. The paper argues that using volume of chainsaw timber in reaching the
market and a production efficiency parameter based on ratio of lumber to tree volume rather than lumber to log/beam volume is a more credible approach.

sbritwum Mon, 05/30/2011 - 12:37

Responsible party

Forestry Research Institute of Ghana

Funding bodies

European Union

Attachment	Size
chainsaw_milling.pdf	59.53 KB

Forests and Climate Change / Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Biological Invasions chainsaw milling / estimation of jobs / informal timber industry / ghana

Chainsaw operators’ perception of the availability of timber resources and their willingness to pay for timber harvesting rights

sbritwum — Mon, 30 May 2011 17:28:35 +0000

Chainsaw operators’ perception of the availability of timber resources and their willingness to pay for timber harvesting rights

Description

In recent times, chainsaw milling has generated protracted public debate, and has been pervasive and contested in the forest governance discourse in Ghana. Even though regularization of the activities of operators has been proposed as a viable option for dealing with the issue, operators’ willingness to pay for timber harvesting rights has not yet been assessed. This paper presents results from a study that attempted to assess chainsaw operator’s perception of the availability of timber resources and their willingness to pay to harvest timber. Results of the study indicate that chainsaw operators are willing to pay the FC for timber harvesting rights if their activities are captured under a regularized regime, although their preferences varied: 50 percent of the 50 operators interviewed preferred to pay tax on each timber tree harvested (product tax); 34 percent wanted to pay monthly or annual permit fees; and 14 percent wanted to pay tax on income accrued from chainsaw lumbering (income tax). In terms of the way in which chainsaw activities should be regularized, 74 percent of operators want concessions for registered groups of operators, 18 percent want individual permits to harvest individual trees (permit per tree harvested), while 6 percent want small concessions for individual operators. The paper concludes that rather than continuing with a ban which has not been effective in addressing indiscriminate logging, chainsaw operations need to be regularized to ensure that chainsaw operators pay appropriate taxes to the state for the trees they fell.

sbritwum Mon, 05/30/2011 - 12:28

Responsible party

Forestry Research Institute of Ghana

Funding bodies

European Union

Attachment	Size
chainsaw_operators.pdf	98.6 KB

Forests and Forest-based Products for a Greener Future / Forests and Climate Change timber resources / chainsaw milling / timber harvest rights / willingness to pay / taxes