Civic Response has trained 50 forest-fringe community members in forest law, monitoring, and advocacy. The 3-days training which took place in Accra in two instalments in March 2020 aimed at equipping forest fringe communities with knowledge about their rights and responsibilities regarding the forest. The training also aimed at building their capacities to engage in monitoring and reporting illegalities which occur in forests.
Although progress has been made in tackling illegal logging in Ghana through the development of the Ghana Wood Tracking System (GWTS), the Ghana Timber Transparency Portal on the GWTS, as well as legislative reforms to enhance forest law enforcement, the need for robust monitoring to ensure the integrity, credibility of the GWTS and FLEGT licences issued cannot be over-emphasized. Effective monitoring requires the involvement of communities whose only source of financial benefit from forest management are timber companies’ compliance with Social Responsibility Agreements (SRAs).
